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THE ALHAMBRA 



73? 

-by- 



Washington Irving. 



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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES.— No. 117. 



The Alhambra 



Selected from author's Revised Edition. 



BY 



Washington Irving. 




TKIlitb irntroOuction anD Bjplanaton? IPlotes 
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INTRODUCTION. 

Washington Irving was born in New York, April 3, 1783, 
tlie year in which the British troops withdrew from the city. A 
few months after, General Washington marched in with the Conti- 
nental army, and the patriotic mother said : " Washington's work 
is now ended, and the child shall be named after him." When 
Washington was again in New York as first President, the child's 
enthusiastic Scotch nurse followed the hero into a shop one day 
and presented his young namesake. ** Please, your honor," said 
Lizzie, "here's a bairn was named after you." The great man 
gently touched the boy's head and bestowed a blessing upon his 
future biographer. 

Irving's early education was unsystematic and limited, being 
guided mainly by his own inclinations, which were opposed to the 
rigors of regular study and instruction. He read widely, es- 
pecially books of travel and adventure, and amused himself 
with the composition of juvenile poems and plays. At sixteen his 
school-days were over and he entered a law office, but he had no 
taste for the profession and his reading was more in books of 
poetry and romance than in books of law. His most congenial 
occupations during these years were converse with good literature 
and good society, day-dreaming, and wandering along the banks 
of the Hudson, gathering its legendary lore, by which he was soon 
to make this region classic ground. With what interest and ad- 
miration he read Addison's " Spectator " is shown by his first ven- 
ture as an author, when nineteen years old, a series of critical and 
humorous letters in his brother's paper, the " Morning Chronicle," 
signed "Jonathan Oldstyle," In 1804, for the benefit of his 
health, which had always been delicate, he was sent abroad. He 
spent some time in France, learned the language, visited Sicily, 
enjoying an adventure with pirates on the way, and remained 
several weeks in Rome, drinking in the wonderful influences of 
music and painting, arts that were kindred to his nature and 
tastes. While here he became acquainted with the painter Wash- 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

ington Allston, who nearly persuaded liim to abandon law and 
letters and become an artist. 

On his return to America lie was admitted to the bar, but to be a 
*' champion at the tea-parties " was more agreeable to him than to 
be a pleader of causes in a dirty court-room. A graceful manner, 
a refined taste, and a ready humor made him everywhere a favorite 
in society. His choice of literature as a profession was practi- 
cally determined when, in 1806, he published, in conjunction with 
his brother and his friend Paulding, the "Salmagundi" papers, 
brilliant and successful periodical essays in the manner of the 
"Spectator" and Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World." Three 
years later appeared his first permanent work, that masterpiece 
of delicious and perennial humor, ** Knickerbocker's History of 
New York." The book was remarkably successful, both at home 
and abroad. Sir Walter Scott wrote : " I have never read any- 
thing so closely resembling the style of Dean Swift as the annals 
of Diedrich Knickerbocker. I have been employed these few 
evenings in reading them aloud to Mrs. S. and two ladies who are 
our guests, and our sides have been absolutely sore with laugh- 
ing." While engaged upon this book he suffered a crushing be- 
reavement in the death of Miss Matilda Hoffman, to whom he was 
soon to be married. The anguish of this event colored his whole 
subsequent life and writing. It "seemed," he once said, "to 
give a turn to my whole character and throw some clouds into 
my disposition which have ever since hung about it." 

In 1815 Irving again went to Europe, intending only a brief 
visit in the interests of his brother's business, but the visit was 
prolonged to seventeen years. Several years were spent in Eng- 
land, where he was associated with the most distinguished people 
in literature and society. The poets Southey, Moore, Campbell, 
and Rogers were his friends ; to the happy days spent in the 
family of Sir Walter Scott we owe the charming " Recollections 
of Abbotsford ;" and in the Red Horse Inn at Stratford are still 
preserved the mementos of his pilgrimage to the shrine of Shak- 
spere, with which the whole world is now familiar through his 
delightfuFdescriptions. In England he wrote the " Sketch Book," 
the first number of which was published in New York in 1819, 
introducing to the world the immortal "Rip Van Winkle." It 
was soon republished in London, and made him famous in two 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

continents. " Geoffrey Crayon is the most fashionable fellow of the 
day," said the painter Leslie. " His Crayon — I know it by 
heart," said Lord Byron ; "his writings are my delight." Even 
the great reviewers of the time, who did not credit America 
with the ability to produce a work of genius, were loud in his 
praise. The "Sketch Book" was the first link in the bond of 
literary sympathy that was to reunite England and America. It 
was followed by " Bracebridge Hall " and " Tales of a Traveler," 
in the same general style. 

After a brief sojourn in Germany and France, Irving went, in 
1826, to Spain, where he remained three years, working upon his 
"Life of Columbus." The labor resulted also in three other 
books of imperishable beauty and interest, "The Alhambra," the 
"Conquest of Granada," and the "Legends of the Conquest of 
Spain." While there he received unexpectedly the appointment 
of Secretary of Legation to the court of St. James, and in 1830 
he resumed his residence in England. His "Columbus" had 
just appeared from the press, and honors of every kind now 
poured in upon him. From the Royal Society of Literature he 
received the gold medal of King George, and from the University 
of Oxford the degree of D.C.L., which title, however, his mod- 
esty never permitted him to use. Two years later he returned to 
America, and met with an overwhelming reception from his ad- 
miring countrymen. 

He now purchased a home in the midst of his old haunts on the 
banks of the Hudson. Here in the pretty cottage called " Sunny- 
side" — soon overrun with English ivy, from a slip from Melrose 
Abbey — he gathered about him his family of brothers, nephews, 
and nieces, who, owing to business disaster, were largely dependent 
upon him for support. Ten happy years were here spent in literary 
labor, resulting in the " Tour on the Prairies," a book that is still 
one of the best records of adventure in the wild West, ' ' Astoria, " 
"Recollections of Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey," "Captain 
Bonneville," " Wolfert's Roost," "Life of Goldsmith," and 
* ' Mahomet and his Successors. " He was already engaged upon his 
great work, the " Life of Washington," when, on the recommen- 
dation of Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, he was appointed 
Minister to Spain, an appointment eminently fitting, and accepta- 
ble to both nations. But the life of courts and palaces had lost 



INTEODUCTION. 

its charms for him. In 1845 he writes : "I long to be once more 
back at dear little Sunnyside, while I have yet strength and good 
spirits to enjoy the simple pleasures of the country, and to rally 
a happy family group once more about me. I grudge every year 
of absence that rolls by. To-morrow is my birthday. I shall then 
be sixty-two years old. The evening of life is fast drawing over 
me ; still I hope to get back among my friends while there is a 
little sunshine left." The following year "the impatient long- 
ing of his heart was gratified," says his biographer, "and he 
found himself restored to his home for the thirteen years of happy 
life still remaining to him." In these last years he enjoyed in 
full measure ' ' that which should accompany old age, as honor, 
love, obedience, troops of friends." His life's work was fittingly 
rounded with the publication of his " Washington." He lived to 
see the last volume issue from the press and to hear the voice of 
universal praise. Death came at the close of a beautiful Indian- 
summer day, November 28, 1859, and he was buried near Sleepy 
Hollow, amid the scenes loved by him through life and made 
memorable forever by his magic pen. 

The personality of Irving is one of the most lovable in all our 
literature, and this personality is embodied with remarkable full- 
ness in his writings. The grace of language, the chaste and 
noble thought, the touches of idealism and romance, the chival- 
rous regard for pure womanhood, the genial humor, the tender- 
ness, sympathy, and pathos that characterize all his books, were 
qualities of his daily life. Says William Cullen Bryant: "He 
was ever ready to do kind offices ; tender of the feelings of others; 
carefully just, but gver leaning toward the merciful side of 
justice ; averse to strife ; and so modest that the world never 
ceased to wonder how it should have happened that one so much 
praised should have gained so little assurance." The presence of 
this gracious personality in his books is always a refining and 
beneficent influence ; no one reads them without being made hap- 
pier and better. 

His mind was not philosophical or profound, and he did not 
discuss in his works the deeper problems of human life and 
destiny. Happiness, truth, nobility, and faith Avere the funda- 
mental principles of his philosophy. The ideal and spiritual 
simplicity of his works presents a wholesome protest against the 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

feverish unrest and sordid materialism of the literature of the 
present day. His thoughts turned naturally to the i)ast ; his im- 
agination dwelt most contentedly in the fields of history, tradi- 
tion, and romance. The air of enchantment in Moorish Spain 
was an inspiration to him. Mellow England, grown old in his- 
tory and song, was always dear to him. But there was a past in 
American history that he loved equally well. He did for his 
native land what Scott did for Scotland, investing the region of 
the Hudson with an atmosphere of romance and poetry as dis- 
tinct and national as that which rests upon the Tweed and the 
banks and braes of Yarrow. 

While studying the following selections, pupils should be per- 
mitted to read some historical account of the Moorish occupation 
of Spain, such as Stanley Lane-Poole's " Story of the Moors in 
Spain" (Story of the Nations Series), or Charlotte M. Yonge's 
"Christians and Moors of Spain." Prescott's "History of Fer- 
dinand and Isabella" should be at hand, and especially the 
author's "Conquest of Granada." Also the legends and tales 
contained in the complete edition of the " Alhambra" should be 
read, if possible, in connection with these descriptive sketches. 
In the class-room reading the Spanish quotations may be omit- 
ted ; the pronunciation of Spanish names offering any difficulty 
is given in the notes. An effort should be made to bring before 
the class good engravings and photographs of the Alhambra. 

For further biographical material, consult Charles Dudley War- 
ner's "Life of Washington Irving" (American Men of Letters 
Series), or the more extended biography by Trving's nephew^ 
Pierre Irving. Curtis's " Homes of American Authors " will add 
interesting information, as also Bryant's oration upon Irving, in 
a volume entitled "Orations and Addresses." 

These selections are given without mutilation or abridgment of 
the text, and, by the courteous permission of Messrs. (i. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, they are>eprinted from the last edition revised ])y the 
author. 



IRVING'S STYLE. 

"The Goldsmifh of our age," — Thackeray. 

' • His external English style was fairly entitled to be called 
Addisonian, and he easily surpassed Charles Lamb in evenness of 
execution." — Richardson's American Literature. 

' ' His style is one of the most agreeable in the whole range of 
our literature. It is transparent as the light, sweetly modulated, 
unaffected, the native expression of a fertile fancy, a benignant 
temper, and a mind which, delighting in the noble and the beau- 
tiful, turned involuntarily away from their opposites. His pecu- 
liar humor was, in a great measure, the offspring of this constitu- 
tion of his mind. This 'fanciful playing with common things,' 
as Mr, Dana calls it, is never coarse, never tainted with grossness, 
and always in harmony with our better sympathies," — William 
Oullen Bryant. 

"That he thoroughly mastered such literature as he fancied, 
there is abundant evidence; that his style was influenced by 
the purest English models is also apparent. But there remains 
a large margin for wonder how, with his want of training, 
he could have elaborated a style which is distinctively his own, 
and is as copious, felicitous in the choice of words, flowing, 
spontaneous, flexible, engaging, clear, and as little wearisome 
when read continuously in quantity, as any in the English tongue. 
This is saying a great deal, though it is not claiming for him the 
compactness, nor the robust vigor, nor the depth of thought, of 
many other masters in it. It is sometimes praised for its sim- 
plicity. It is certainly lucid, but its simplicity is not that of 
Benjamin Franklin's style ; it is often ornate, not seldom diffuse, 
and always exceedingly melodious. It is noticeable for its meta- 
phorical felicity. But it was not in the sympathetic nature of 
the author to come sharply to the point. It is much to have 
merited the eulogy of Campbell that he had ' added clarity to the 
English tongue.' " —Charles Dudley Warner. 

8 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBKA. 



To the traveler imbued with a feeling for the historical and 
poetical, so inseparably intertwined in the annals of romantic 
Spain, the Alhambra is as much an object of devotion as is 
the Caaba to all true Moslems. How many legends and tradi- 
tions, true and fabulous, — how many songs and ballads, Ara- 5 
bian and Spanish, of love and war and chivalry, are associated 
with this Oriental pile ! It was the royal abode of the Moor- 
ish kings, where, surrounded with the splendors and refine- 
ments of Asiatic luxury, they held dominion over what they 
vaunted as a terrestrial {jaradise, and made their last stand 10 
for empire in Spain. The royal palace forms but a part of 
a fortress, the walls of which, studded with towers, stretch 
irregularly round the whole crest of a hill, a spur of the Sierra 
Nevada or Snowy Mountains, and overlook the city; exter- 
nally it is a rude congregation of towers and battlements, w^ith 15 



. 3. AIliainl>ra fal-hain'brah): This Avord sig^nifles, in Arabic, "the red 
house," so called from the red brick of which its external walls are con- 
structed. 

4. Caaba (kah'bah): The most sacred shrine of the Mohammedans, in the 
temple at Mecca, in Arabia, containing? the sacred black stone, believed to 
have been presented to Mahomet by the anj^el Gabriel. All Mohammedans 
turn toward this point during their devotions. 

4. Moslem (mos'lem): A Mussulmar), or believer in the Mohammedan 
faith, called Mam. 

7. The palace was erected chiefly between 1248 and 1854. Innnediately 
upon the expulsion of the Moors in 14S)Ji, the Spaniards betrau to deface its 
beauties, filling up the open-work with whitewasli, and destroying? the 
painting^ and rich gilding:. Restor-atiotis have been attempted in lecent 
years, and it is now carefully preserved. 

13. Sierra Nevada (se-er'rah na-vah'dah): The word sierra means a saw, 
hence a range of mountains resembling saw-teeth, and ncvada means a 
heavy fall of snow. 

9 



10 PALACE OP THE ALHAMBRA. 

no regularity of plan nor grace of architecture, and giving 
little promise of the grace and beauty which prevail within. 

In the time of the Moors the fortress was capable of con- 
taining within its outward precincts an army of forty thousand 
5 men, and served occasionally as a stronghold of the sover- 
eigns against their rebellious subjects. After the kingdom 
had passed into the hands of the Christians, the Alhambra 
continued to be a royal demesne, and was occasionally inhab- 
ited by the Castilian monarchs. The emperor Charles V. com- 

lo menced a sumptuous palace within its walls, but was deterred 
from completing it by repeated shocks of earthquakes. The 
last royal residents were Philip V. and his beautiful queen, 
Elizabetta of Parma, early in the eighteenth century. Great 
preparations were made for their reception. The palace and 

15 gardens were placed in a state of repair, and a new suite of 
apartments erected, and decorated by artists brought from 
Italy. The sojourn of the sovereigns was transient, and after 
their departure the palace once more became desolate. Still 
the place was maintained with some military state. The gov- 

2oernor held it immediately from the crown; its jurisdiction ex- 
tended down into the suburbs of the city, and was independent 
of the captain-general of Granada. A considerable garrison 
was kept up; the governor had his apartments in the front of 
the old Moorish palace, and never descended into Granada 

25 without some military parade. The fortress, in fact, was a 
little town of itself, having several streets of houses within its 
walls, together with a Franciscan convent and a parochial 
church. 

8. Demesne (de-meen'): An old French word, originally signifying: the 
land and manor-house or castle held by a lord for his own use, as distin- 
guished from tlie land distributed among his tenants. 

9. Charles V.: The grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, Archduke of 
Austria, King of Spain, the Netherlands, and the two Sicilies, and Emperor 
of Germany. W^hat important events in Germany during his reign ? Who 
were his great rivals on the thrones of Europe ? 

18. Philip v.: Grandson of Louis XIV. of France. Archduke Charles of 
Austria contested his title to the throne, and brought on the War of the 
Spanish Succession in 1702. What nations were involved in tins war '? 

27. Franciscan : The Franci.scans were an order of monks or mendicant 
friars, founded by St. Francis of Assisi, Italy. The "Gray Friars'" and 
" Barefooted Friars" were of this order. Ferdinand and Isabella were buried 
in this monastery, but the remains were finally removed to the stately 
mausoleum erected by Charles V. in the neighboring cathedral of Granada. 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 11 

The desertion of the court, however, was a fatal blow to the 
Alhambra. Its Ijeaiitif ul halls became desolate, and some of 
them fell to ruin; the gardens were destroyed, and the foun- 
tains ceased to play. By degrees the dwellings became filled 
with a loose and lawless population, contrabandistas, who 5 
availed themselves of its independent jurisdiction to carry on 
a wide and daring course of smuggling, and thieves and rogues 
of all sorts, who made this their place of refuge whence they 
might depredate upon Granada and its vicinity. The strong 
arm of government at length interfered; the whole community lo 
was thoroughly sifted; none were suffered to remain but such 
as were of honest character, and had legitimate right to a resi- 
dence; the greater part of the houses were demolished and a 
mere hamlet left, with the parochial church and the Francis- 
can convent. During the recent troubles in Spain, when 15 
Granada was in the hands of the French, the Alhambra was 
garrisoned by their troops, and the palace was occasionally 
inhabited by the French commander. With that enlightened 
taste which has ever distinguished the French nation in their 
conquests, this monument of Moorish elegance and grandeur 20 
was rescued from the absolute ruin and desolation that were 
overwhelming it. The roofs were repaired, the saloons and 
galleries protected from the weather, the gardens cultivated, 
the water-courses restored, the fountains once more made to 
throw up their sparkling showers; and Spain may thank her 25 
invaders for having preserved to her the most beautiful and 
interesting of her historical monuments. 

On the departure of the French they blew up several towers 
of the outer wall, and left the fortifications scarcely tenable. 
Since that time the military importance of the post is at an 30 
end. The garrison is a handful of invalid soldiers, whose 
principal duty is to guard some of the outer towers, which 
serve occasionally as a prison of state; and the governor, 



5. Contrabandistas: Spanish for coiitrabandists, smugglers. From 
L. contra, against, and bmulum, a proclamation, ban, or law. 

18. After the French Revolution, Napoleon invaded Spain, deposed the 
king, and placed his brother upon the tlu'one; but the Spaniards, aided by 
England, expelled the French in 1814. 



12 PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 

abandoning the lofty hill of the Alhambra, resides in the 
center of Granada, for the more convenient dispatch of his 
official duties. I cannot conclude this brief notice of the state 
of the fortress without bearing testimony to the honorable 
5 exertions of its present commander, Don Francisco de Serna, 
who is tasking all the limited resources at his command to put 
the palace in a state of repair, and by his judicious precautions 
has for some time arrested its too certain decay. Had his 
predecessors discharged the duties of their station with equal 

lo fidelity, the Alhambra might yet have remained in almost its 
pristine beauty; were government to second him with means 
equal to his zeal, this relic of it might still be preserved for 
many generations to adorn the land, and attract the curious 
and enlightened of every clime. 

15 Our first object of course, on the morning after our arrival, 
was a visit to this time-honored edifice; it has been so often, 
however, and so minutely described by triivelers, that I shall 
not undertake to give a comprehensive and elaborate account 
of it, but merely occasional sketches of parts, with the inci- 

20 dents and associations connected with them. 

Leaving our posada, and traversing the renowned square of 
the Vivarrambla, once the scene of Moorish jousts and tourna- 
ments, now a crowded market-place, we proceeded along the 
Zacatin, the main street of what, in the time of the Moors, 

25 was the Great Bazaar, and where small shops and narrow 
alleys still retain the Oriental character. Crossing an open 
place in front of the palace of the captain-general, we ascended 



15. Irving begins the introductory sketch entitled "The Journey" with 
this explanation: "In the spring of 1829, the author of this woik, whom 
curiosity had brought into Spain, made a rambling expedition from Seville 
to Granada in company with a friend, a member of the Russian embassy at 
Madrid." 

17. Some of the recent descriptions that will be especially interesting are 
to be found in Hare's "Wanderings in Spain," Charles A. Stoddard's 
" Spanish Cities," De Amicis' " Spain and the Spaniards," Henry T. Finck's 
" Spain and Morocco." Lockhart's " Spanish Ballads " will also add inter- 
est, and Mrs. Hemaiis' poem, "The Alhambra," and Longfellow's charm- 
ing " Castles in Spjiin." Those who are near large libraries should see the 
splendid illustrations of the Alhambra in Murphy's " Araliian Antiquities 
of Spain," and Gowry and Jones's " Plans, Elevations, and Details of the 
Alhambra." 

21. Posada (po-sah'dah): An inn or resting-place. 



PALACE OF THE ALTIAMBRA. 13 

a confined and winding street, the name of which reminded 
U8 of the chivalric days of Granada. It is called tlie Calle, or 
street of the Gomeres, from a Moorish family famous in chron- 
icle and song. This street led up to the Puerta de las Granadas, 
a massive gateway of Grecian architecture, built by Charles 5 
v., forming the entrance to the donuiins of the Alhambra. 

At the gate were two or three ragged superannuated sol- 
diers, dozing on a stone bench, the successors of the Zegris 
and the Abencerrages; while a tall, meagre varlet, whose rusty- 
brown cloak was evidently intended to conceal the ragged lo 
state of his nether garments, was lounging in the sunshine 
and gossiping with an ancient sentinel on duty. He joined 
us as we entered the gate, and offered his services to show us 
the fortress. 

I have a traveler's dislike to officious ciceroni, and did not 15 
altogether like the garb of the applicant. 

" You are well acquainted with the place, I presume ?" 

"Ninguno mas; pues seiior, soy hijo de la Alhambra." — 
(Nobody better; in fact, sir, I am a son of the Alhambra !) 

The common Spaniards have certainly a most poetical way 20 
of expressing themselves. "A son of the Alhambra!" the 
appellation caught me at once; the very tattered garb of my 
new acquaintance assumed a dignity in my eyes. It was em- 
blematic of the fortunes of the place, and befitted the progeny 
of a ruin. 25 

I put some further questions to him, and found that his 
title was legitimate. His family had lived in the fortress from 
generation to generation ever since the time of the Conquest. 



2. Calle (cal'lya): Spanish for s6ee<. 

4. Puerta de las Granadas (poo-er'tah da lahs grah-nah'das): Liter- 
ally the Gate of tJie Pomegranates. Tlie M'ord qranada means pomegran- 
ate', so when Ferdinand determined to beKi" his crusade by capturing the 
smaller fortresses of Granada before attempting the capital, he said, "I 
will pick out the seeds, one by one, of Ihis pomegranate." 

8. Zegris, Abencerrages (a-ben'ser-ra-jes): Two noble families of 
Granada, between wiiom there was a mortal feud, which gave rise to many 
romantic stories. 

15. Ciceroni (sis-e-ro'ne): The plural of cicerone (sis-e-ro'ne), a guide; so 
called from the great Roman orator Cicero, on account of the loquacity of 
guides. 

^>8. The Conquest : That is, since the conquest of Granada in 1493. 



14 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBEA. 

His name was Mateo Ximenes, "Then, perhaps," said I, 
" you may be a descendant from the great Cardinal Ximenes?" 
— " Dios Sabe ! God knows, Seiior ! It maybe so. We are 
the oldest family in the Alhambra, — Cliristianos Viejos, old 
5 Christians, without any taint of Moor or Jew. I know we 
belong to some great family or other, but I forget whom. My 
father knows all about it: he has the coat of arms hanging up 
in his cottage, up in the fortress." There is not any Spaniard, 
however poor, but has some claim to high pedigree. The first 

lo title of this ragged worthy, however, had completely capti- 
vated me; so I gladly accepted the services of the " son of the 
Alhambra." 

We now found ourselves in a deep narrow ravine, filled 
with beautiful groves, with a steep avenue, and various foot- 

15 paths winding through it, bordered with stone seats, and 
ornamented with fountains. To our left we beheld the towers 
of the Alhambra beetling above us; to our right, on the oppo- 
site side of the ravine, we were equally dominated by rival 
towers on a rocky eminence. These, we were told, were the 

20 Torres Vermejos, or vermilion towers, so called from their 
ruddy hue. No one knows their origin. They are of a date 
much anterior to the Alhambra: some suppose them to have 
been built by the Eomans; others, by some wandering colony 
of Phoenicians. Ascending the steep and shady avenue, we 

25 arrived at the foot of a huge square Moorish tower, forming a 
kind of barbican, through which passed the main entrance to 
the fortress. Within the barbican was another group of vet- 
eran invalids, one mounting guard at the portal, while the 
rest, wrapped in their tattered cloaks, slept on the stone 



2. Ximenes (ze-mee'neez): This celebrated churchman and statesman 
was Isabella's confessor, Ferdinand's chief counselor, and at the death of 
Ferdinand was made regent of the kingdom. 

17. Beetling: To beetle is to jut out, overhang; so a person with bushy, 
prominent eyebrows is called "beetle-browed.'" Horatio warns Hamlet 
that the Ghost may tempt him: 

" toward the flood, 
Or to the dreadful summit of tlie clifif 
That beetles o'er his base into the sea." 
26. Barbican: The barbican was an outwork for defending the main ap- 
proach to a castle, often the gate-house or gateway-tower. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 15 

benches. This portal is called the Gate of Justice, from the 
tribunal held within its j)orch during the Moslem domination, 
for the immediate trial of petty causes: a custom common to 
the Oriental nations, and occasionally alluded to in the Sacred 
Scriptures. " Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in alls 
thy (jates^ and they shall judge the people with just judg- 
ment." 

The great vestibule, or porch of the gate, is formed by an 
immense Arabian arch, of the horseshoe form, which springs 
to half the height of the tower. On the keystone of this arch lo 
is engraven a gigantic hand. Within the vestibule, on the 
keystone of the portal, is sculptured, in like manner, a gigantic 
key. Those who pretend to some knowledge of Mohammedan 
symbols affirm that the hand is the emblem of doctrine, the 
five fingers designating the five principal commandments of 15 
the creed of Islam, fasting, pilgrimage, alms-giving, ablution, 
and war against infidels. The key, say they, is the emblem 
of the faith or of power; the key of Daoud, or David, trans- 
mitted to the prophet. " And the key of the house of David will 
I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut, 20 
and he shall shut, and none shall open." (Isaiah xxii. 22.) 
The key, we are told, wavS emblazoned on the standard of the 
Moslems in opposition to the Christian emblem of the cross, 
when they subdued Spain or Andalusia. It betokened the 
conquering powder invested in the prophet. "He that hath 25 
the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and 
shutteth, and no man openeth." (Kev. iii. 7.) 

A different explanation of these emblems, however, was 
given by the legitimate son of the Alhambra, and one more in 
nnison with the notions of the common people, who attach 30 
something of mystery and magic to everything Moorish, and 
have all kinds of superstitions connected with this old Moslem 
fortress. According to Mateo, it was a tradition handed down 
from the oldest inhabitants, and which he had from his father 



G. Deuteronomy xvi. 18. 

16. Islam (is'lam^- An Arabic word meaning: siibmiaaion, obedience to 
God ; the name usually used to designate the religion of Mahomet. 



16 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

and grandfather, that the hand and key were magical devices 
on which the fate of the Alhambra depended. The Moorish 
king who built it was a great magician, or, as some believed, 
had sold himself to the devil, and had laid the whole fortress 
5 under a magic spell. By this means it had remained stand- 
ing for several years, in defiance of storms and earthquakes, 
while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen to 
ruin and disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to 
say, would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach 

lo down and grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble 
to pieces, and all the treasures buried beneath it by the Moors 
would be revealed. 

Notwithstanding this ominous prediction, we ventured to 
pass through the spell-bound gateway, feeling some little 

15 assurance against magic art in the protection of the Virgin, a 
statue of whom we observed above the portal. 

After passing through the barbican, we ascended a narrow 
lane, winding betw^een walls, and came on an open esplanade 
within the fortress, called the Plaza de los Algibes, or Place of 

20 the Cisterns, from great reservoirs which undermine it, cut in 
the living rock by the Moors to receive the water brought by 
conduits from the Darro, for the supply of the fortress. Here, 
also, is a well of immense depth, furnishing the purest and 
coldest of water, — another monument of the delicate taste of 

25 the Moors, who were indefatigable in tlieir exertions to obtain 
that element in its crystal purity. 

In front of this esplanade is the splendid pile commenced 
by Charles V., and intended, it is said, to eclipse the residence 
of the Moorish kings. Much of the Oriental edifice intended 

30 for the winter season was demolished to make way for this 
massive pile. The grand entrance was blocked up ; so that 
the present entrance to the Moorish palace is through a simple 
and almost humble portal in a corner. With all the massive 
grandeur and architectural merit of the palace of Charles V., 



18. Esplanade (es-pla-nade'): lu a nieiliaeval town, tlie open level space 
between the citadel and the first houses of the town. Here, the high level 
portion of the outer court. 



PALACE OP THE ALIIAMBRA. 17 

we regarded it as an arrogant intruder, and passing by it with 
a feeling almost of scorn, rang at the Moslem portal. 

While waiting for admittance, our self-imposed cicerone, 
Mateo Ximenes, informed us that the royal palace was in- 
trusted to the care of a worthy old maiden dame called Dona 5 
Antonia-Molina, but who, according to Spanish custom, went 
by the more neighborly appellation of Tia Antonia (Aunt An- 
tonia), who maintained the Moorish halls and gardens in order 
and showed them to strangers. While we were talking, the door 
was opened by a plump little black-eyed Andalusian damsel, lo 
whom Mateo addressed as Dolores, but who from her bright 
looks and cheerful disposition evidently merited a merrier name. 
Mateo informed me in a whisper that she was the niece of Tia 
Antonia, and I found she was the good fairy who was to con- 
duct us through the enchanted palace. Under her guidance 15 
we crossed the threshold, and were at once transported, as if 
by magic wand, into other times and an Oriental realm, and 
were treading the scenes of Arabian story. Nothing could be 
in greater contrast than the unpromising exterior of the pile 
with the scene now before us. We found ourselves in a vast 20 
patio or court, one hundred and fifty feet in length, and up- 
ward of eighty feet in breadth, paved with white marble, and 
decorated at each end with light Moorish peristyles, one of 
which supported an elegant gallery of fretted architecture. 
Along the moldings of the cornices and on various parts of 25 
the walls were escutcheons and ciphers, and cuflc and Arabic 

2. This monument of Chai-les V.'s folly is two hundred and forty feet 
square, and stands a mere shell, without a roof. It is in the Italian style of 
architecture and splendidly ornamented with rich carvings and bas-reliefs. 
The money with which it was built was extracted from tlie Moors. 

11. Dolores (do-lor'es): " The doleful;"' from the Latin dolor, pahi, 
sorrow. Tlie Virgin is sometimes called " Our Lady of Dolors." 

21. Patio (pah'te-o): Spanish for op^^N spare or court. The Romans said 
patens of anythinsr lying: open, and we say patent of a thing that is clear or 
evident to all. Trace the connection still further in letters patent and 
patent rigJit. 

83. Peristyles f per'i-stiles) : Rows of columns, usually surroimding: some 
part of a building^. From the Greek Trepi, round, and (ttv\o^, a cohmm. 

26. Escutcheon : An old French word belonginjf to heraldry, from Latin 
scutiun, a shield; the sliield shaped surface upon which a person's arnioriai 
bearings are depicted or emblazoned. 

26. Ciphers: Monograms, devices formed by the interweaving of initial 
letters. 

26. Cufic (ku'fik): A name applied to the characters of the Arabic alpha- 



18 PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 

characters in high relief, repeating the pious mottoes of the 
Moslem monarchs, the builders of the Alhambra, or extolling 
their grandeur and munificence. Along the centre of the 
court extended an immense basin or tank (estanque), a hun- 
5 dred and twenty-four feet in length, twenty-seven in breadth, 
and five in depth, receiving its water from two marble vases. 
Hence it is called the Court of the Alberca (from al Beerkah, 
the Arabic for a pond or tank). Great numbers of gold-fish 
were to be seen gleaming through the waters of the basin, and 

lo it was bordered by hedges of roses. 

Passing from the Court of the Alberca under a Moorish 
archway, we entered the renowned Court of Lions. No part 
of the edifice gives a more complete idea of its original beauty 
than this, for none has suifered so little from the ravages 

15 of time. In the center stands the fountain famous in song 
and story. The alabaster basins still shed their diamond 
drops ; the tw^elve lions which support them, and give the 
court its name, still cast forth crystal streams as in the days 
of Boabdil. The lions, however, are unworthy of their fame, 

20 being of miserable sculpture, the work probably of some Chris- 
tian captive. The court is laid out in flower-beds, instead of 
its ancient and appropriate pavement of tiles or marble ; the 
alteration, an instance of bad taste, w^as made by the French 
when in possession of Granada. Eound the four sides of the 

25 court are light Arabian arcades of open filigree work, sup- 
ported by slender pillars of white marble, w^hich it is supposed 
w^ere originally gilded. The architecture, like that in most 
parts of the interior of the palace, is characterized by elegance 
rather than grandeur, bespeaking a delicate and graceful taste, 

30 and a disposition to indolent enjoyment. When one looks 
upon the fairy traces of the peristyles, and tlie apparently 
fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so 

bet as used in the Koran, from the city Cufa, an early capital of the caliphs, 
where wei-e the most skillful copyists of the Koran. 

1. Some of these mottoes may be thus translated: "There is no con- 
queror but God;" " The glory of the Empire belongs to God;" " God is our 
refuge;" " Perpetual salvation;" " There are no gifts among you but those 
of God," etc. 
19 Boabdil (ho-ab-deel'): The last Moorish King of Granada. 



PALACE OP THE ATJIAMHRA. lU 

much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks 
of eartliquakes, tlie violence of war, and the quiet, though no 
less baneful, pilferings of the tasteful traveler : it is almost 
sufficient to excuse the popular tradition that the whole is 
protected by a magic charm. 5 

On one side of the court a rich portal opens into the Hall of 
the Abencerrages : so called from the gallant cavaliers of that 
illustrious line who were here perfidiously massacred. There 
are some who doubt the whole story, but our humble cicerone 
Mateo pointed out the very wicket of the portal through which lo 
they were introduced one by one into the Court of Lions, and 
the white marble fountain in the center of the hall beside 
which they were beheaded. He showed us also certain broad 
ruddy stains on the pavement, traces of their blood, which, 
according to popular belief, can never be effaced. 15 

Finding we listened to him apparently with easy faith, he 
added that there was often heard at night, in the Court of 
Lions, a low confused sound, resembling the murmuring of a 
multitude, and now and then a faint tinkling, like the distant 
clank of chains. These sounds were made by the spirits of 20 
the murdered Abencerrages ; who nightly haunt the scene of 
their suffering and invoke the vengeance of Heaven on their 
destroyer. 

The sounds in question had no doubt been produced, as I 
had afterward an opportunity of ascertaining, by the bubbling 25 
currents and tinkling falls of water conducted under the pave- 
ment through pipes and channels to supply the fountains; but 
I was too considerate to intimate such an idea to the humble 
chronicler of the Alhambra. 

Encouraged by my easy credulity, Mateo gave me the fol- 30 
lowing as an undoubted fact, which he had from his grand- 
father: — ■ 

There was once an invalid soldier, who had charge of the 
Alhambra to show it to strangers; as he was one evening, 
about twilight, passing through the court of Lions, he heard 35 



10. Wicket : A small gate or dooi-way, forming a part of a larger gate or 
"portal." 



20 PALACE OP THE ALHAMBRA. 

footsteps on the Hall of the Abencerrages ; supposing some 
strangers to be lingering there, he advanced to attend upon 
them, when to his astonishment he beheld four Moors richly 
dressed, with gilded cuirasses and cimeters, and poniards 
5 glittering with precious stones. They were walking to and 
fro, with solemn pace ; but paused and beckoned to him. The 
old soldier, however, took to flight, and conld never afterward 
be prevailed upon to enter the Alhambra. Thus it is that 
men sometimes turn their backs upon fortune ; for it is the 

lo firm opinion of Mateo that the Moors intended to reveal the 
place where their treasures lay buried. A successor to the 
invalid soldier was more knowing; he came to the Alhambra 
poor, but at the end of a year went off to Malaga, bought 
houses, set up a carriage, and still lives there, one of the rich- 

15 est as well as oldest men of the place; all which, Mateo sagely 
surmised, was in consequence of his finding out the golden 
secret of these phantom Moors. 

I now perceived I had made an invaluable acquaintance in 
this son of the Alhambra, one who knew all the apocryphal 

20 history of the place, and firmly believed in it, and whose 
memory was stuffed with a kind of knowledge for which I 
have a lurking fancy, but which is too apt to be considered 
rubbish by less indulgent philosophers. I determined to cul- 
tivate the acquaintance of this learned Theban. 

25 Immediately opposite the Hall of the Abencerrages, a portal, 
richly adorned, leads into a hall of less tragical associations. 
It is light and lofty, exquisitely graceful in its architecture, 
paved with white marble, and bears the suggestive name of 
the Hall of the Two Sisters. Some destroy the romance of the 

30 name by attributing it to two enormous slabs of alabaster 
which lie side by side and form a great part of the pavement: 
an opinion strongly supported by Mateo Ximenes. Others are 
disposed to give the name a more poetical significance, as the 
vague memorial of Moorish beauties who once graced this hall, 

24. Liearned Theban : I^ear says, in the scene with Edg:ar {King Lpnr, 
III. 4), " I'll talk a woi-d witli this same learned Thehan." According 
to Grecian lej^end, Oedipus, King of Thebes, guessed the riddle propounded 
by the Sphinx, which had before baffled the wisdom of all men. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 21 

which was evidently a part of the royal harem. This opin- 
ion I was happy to find entertained by our little bright-eyed 
guide, Dolores, who pointed to a balcony over an inner porch, 
which gallery, she had been told, belonged to the women's 
apartment. " You see, sefior," said she, " it is all grated and 5 
latticed, like the gallery in a convent chapel where the nuns 
hear mass; for the Moorish kings," added she, indignantly, 
" shut up their wives just like nuns." 

The latticed "jalousies," in fact, still remain, whence the 
dark-eyed beauties of the harem might gaze unseen upon the 10 
zambras and other dances and entertainments of the hall 
below. 

On each side of this hall are recesses or alcoves for ottomans 
and couches, on which the voluptuous lords of the Alhambra 
indulged in that dreamy repose so dear to the Orientalists. A 15 
cupola or lantern admits a tempered light from above and a 
free circulation of air ; while on one side is heard the refresh- 
ing sound of waters from the fountain of the lions, and on the 
other side the soft plash from the basin in the garden of Lin- 
daraxa. 20 

It is impossible to contemplate this scene, so perfectly 
Oriental, without feeling the early associations of Arabian 
romance, and almost expecting to see the white arm of some 
mysterious princess beckoning from the gallery, or some dark 
eye sparkling through the lattice. The abode of beauty is here 25 
as if it had been inhabited but yesterday; but where are the 
two sisters, where the Zoraydas and Lindaraxas I 

An abundant supply of water, brought from the mountains 
by old Moorish aqueducts, circulates throughout the palace, 
supplying its baths and fish-pools, sparkling in jets within its 30 
halls or murmuring in channels along the marble pavements. 



9. Jalousies : The French jalousie, jealousy, denotes also a latt?ce or 
window-blind; hence a gallery or veranda inclosed with lattice-work or 
slatted fi-aines. 

11. Zambras : The zambra (Sp. tham'brah) was a Moorish festival, with 
mnsic and dancing. 

37. Zoraydas : Zorayda was one of the tlree beautiful princesses impris- 
oned, according; to legend, in the Tower of the Princesses. Irving tells the 
Story later in the volume. The story of Lindaraxa is given on page 43, 



82 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

When it has paid its tribute to the royal pile, and visited its 
gardens and parterres, it flows down the long avenue leading 
to the city, tinkling in rills, gushing in fountains, and main- 
taining a perpetual verdure in those groves that embower and 
5 beautify the whole hill of the Alhambra. 

Those only who have sojourned in the ardent climates of 
the South can appreciate the delights of an abode combining 
the breezy coolness of the mountain with the freshness and 
verdure of the valley. While the city below pants with the 

lo noontide heat, and the parched Vega trembles to the eye, the 
delicate airs from the Sierra Nevada play through these lofty 
halls, bringing with them the sweetness of the surrounding 
gardens. Everything invites to that indolent repose, the bliss 
of southern climes; and while the half -shut eye looks out from 

15 shaded balconies upon the glittering landscape, the ear is 
lulled by the rustling of groves and the murmur of running 
- streams. 

I forbear for the present, however, to describe the other 
delightful apartments of the palace. My object is merely to 

20 give the reader a general introduction into an abode where, if 
so disposed, he may linger and loiter with me day by day until 
we gradually become familiar with all its localities. 



10. Vega (va'gah): An open plain near the city, which in the days of the 
Alhambra's glory was "a vast garden of delight, refreslied by numerous 
fountains, and by the silver windings of the Xenil.'" " Celebrated," says 
Prescott, " as the arena, for more than two centuries, of Moorish and 
Christian chivalry, every inch of whose soil may be said to have been fer- 
tilized with human blood." 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 23 



Important Negotiations. — The Author Succeeds to the 
Throne of Boabdil. 

The day was nearly spent before we could tear ourselves from 
this region of poetry and romance to descend to the city and 
return to the forlorn realities of a Spanish posada. In a visit 
of ceremony to the Governor of the Alhambra, to whom we 
had brought letters, we dwelt with enthusiasm on the scenes 5 
we had witnessed, and could not but express surprise that he 
should reside in the city when he had such a paradise at his 
command. He pleaded the inconvenience of a residence in 
the palace from its situation on the crest of a hill, distant 
from the seat of business and the resorts of social intercourse. lo 
It did very well for monarchs, who often had need of castle 
walls to defend them from their own subjects. "But, senors," 
added he, smiling, "if you think a residence there so de- 
sirable, my apartments in the Alhambra are at your service." 

It is a common and almost indispensable point of polite- 15 
ness in a Spaniard, to tell you his house is yours. — " Esta casa 
es siempre a la disposicion de Vm." — " This house is always at 
the command of your Grace. " In fact, anything of his which 
you" admire, is immediately offered to you. It is equally a 
mark of good breeding in you not to accept it ; so we merely 20 
bowed our acknowledgments of the courtesy of the Governor 
in offering us a royal palace. We were mistaken, however. 
The Governor was in earnest. "You will find a rambling set 
of empty, unfurnished rooms," said he; "but Tia Antonia, 
who has charge of the palace, may be able to put them in 25 
some kind of order, and to take care of you while you are 
there. If you can make any arrangement with her for your 
accommodation, and are content with scanty fare in a royal 
abode, the palace of King Chico is at your service." 



29. King Chifo (che'ko): King Boabdil, called el Chico, the younger, to 
distinguish him from a usurping uncle. 



24 PA.LACE OF THE ALHA^IBRA. 

We took the Governor at his word, and hastened up the 
steep Calle de los Gomeres, and through the great Gate of 
Justice, to negotiate with Dame Antonia, — doubting at times 
if this were not a dream, and fearing at times that the sage 

5 Dueiia of the fortress might be slow to capitulate. We knew 
we had one friend at least in the garrison, who would be in 
our favor, the bright-eyed little Dolores, whose good graces we 
had propitiated on our first visit ; and who hailed our return 
to the palace with her brightest looks. 

lo All, however, went smoothly. The good Tia Antonia had a 
little furniture to put in the rooms, but it was of the common- 
est kind. We assured her we could bivouac on the floor. 
She could supply our table, but only in her own simple way ; 
— we wanted nothing better. Her niece, Dolores, would wait 

15 upon us ; and at the word we threw up our hats and the 
bargain was complete. 

The very next day w^e took up our abode in the palace, and 
never did sovereigns share a divided throne with more perfect 
harmony. Several days passed by like a dream, w^hen my 

20 worthy associate, being summoned to Madrid on diplomatic 
duties, was compelled to abdicate, leaving me sole monarch of 
this shadowy realm. For myself, being in a manner a hap- 
hazitrd loiterer about the world, and prone to linger in its 
pleasant places, here have I been suffering day by day to steal 

25 away unheeded, spell-bound, for aught I know, in this old 
enchanted pile. Having always a companionable feeling for 
m> reader, and being prone to live with him on confidential 
terms, I shall make it a point to communicate to him my 
reveries and researches during this state of delicious thraldom. 
If they have the power of imparting to his imagination any 

30 of the witching charms of the place, he will not repine at lin- 
gering with me for a season in the legendary halls of the 
Alhambra. 



5. Dueiia (doo-a'nyali): Formerly the chief lady in waiting on the queen 
in Spnin, anJ finally an elderly woman eniployed as a governess or 
chaperon. The same as durnna or dona, mistress, lady; coiresponding 
to the masculine don, master, sir: Latin domina, mistress; masc. domi- 
nus, master. What familiar English words from thig root ? 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBEA. 25 

And first it is proper to give him some idea of my domestic 
arrangements: they are rather of a simple kind for the occu- 
pant of a regal palace; but I trust they will be less liable to 
disastrous reverses than those of my royal predecessors. 

My quarters are at one end of the Governor's apartment, a 5 
suite of empty chambers, in front of the palace, looking out 
upon the great esplanade called la plaza de los algihes (the 
place of the cisterns); the apartment is modern, but the end 
opposite to my sleeping-room communicates with a cluster of 
little chambers, partly Moorish, partly Spanish, allotted to the 10 
chatelaine Doiia Antonia and her family. In consideration of 
keeping the palace in order, the good dame is allowed all the 
perquisites received from visitors, and all the produce of the 
gardens ; excepting that she is expected to pay an occasional ' 
tribute of fruits and flowers to the Governor. Her family con- 15 
sists of a nephew and niece, the children of two different 
brothers. The nephew, Manuel Molina, is a young man of 
sterling worth and Spanish gravity. He had served in the 
army, both in Spain and the West Indies, but is now studying 
medicine in the hope of one day or other becoming physician 20 
to the fortress, a post worth at least one hundred and forty 
dollars a year. The niece is the plump little black-eyed 
Dolores already mentioned; and who, it is said, will one day 
inherit all her aunt's possessions, consisting of certain petty 
tenements in the fortress, in a somewhat ruinous condition it 25 
is true, but which, I am privately assured by Mateo Ximenes, 
yield a revenue of nearly one hundred and fifty dollars ; so 
that she is quite an heiress in the eyes of the ragged son of 
the Alhainbra. I am also informed by the same observant 
and authentic personage, that a quiet courtship is going on 30 
between the discreet Manuel and his bright-eyed cousin, and 
that nothing is wanting to enable them to join their hands 
and expectations but his doctor's diploma, and a dispensation 
from the Pope on account of their consanguinity. 

The good Dame Antonia fulfils faithfully her contract in 35 

11. ChS.telaine (shat'e-lane): The lady of the castle or chateau, who car- 
ried the keys of the castle suspended from the girdle by a chain. 



26 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBEA. 

regard to my board and lodging; and as lam easily pleased, 
I find my fare excellent, while the merry -hearted little 
Dolores keeps my apartment in order, and officiates as hand- 
maid at meal-times. I have also at my command a tall, 
5 stuttering, yellow-haired lad, named Pepe, who works in the 
gardens, and w^ould fain have acted as valet ; but in this he 
w^as forestalled by Mateo Ximenes, " the son of the Alham- 
bra." This alert and officious wight has managed, somehow 
or other, to stick by me ever since I first encountered him at 

10 the outer gate of the fortress, and to weave himself into all 
my plans, until he has fairly appointed and installed himself 
my valet, cicerone, guide, guard, and historiographic squire ; 
and I have been obliged to improve the state of his wardrobe, 
that he may not disgrace his various functions ; so that he 

15 has cast his old brown mantle as a snake does his skin, and 
now appears about the fortress with a smart Andalusian hat 
and jacket, to his infinite satisfaction, and the great astonish- 
ment of his comrades. The chief fault of honest Mateo is an 
over-anxiety to be useful. Conscious of having foisted him- 

20 self into my employ, and that my simple and quiet habits 
render his situation a sinecure, he is at his wit's ends to 
devise modes of making himself important to my welfare. I 
am in a manner the victim of his officiousness ; I cannot put 
my foot over the threshold of the palace, to stroll about the 

25 fortress, but he is at my elbow, to explain everything I see ; 
and if I venture to ramble among the surrounding hills, he 
insists upon attending me as a guard, though I vehemently 
suspect he would be more apt to trust to tlie length of his legs 
than the strength of his arms, in case of attack. After all, 

30 however, the poor fellow is at times an amusing companion ; 
he is simple-minded and of infinite good humor, with the 
loquacity and gossip of a village barber, and knows all the 
small-talk of the place and its environs ; but what he chiefly 
values himself on is his stock of local information, having the 



12 Historiographic squire: A squire was originally an attendant upon 
a knight, and the kistorioyrapher was an official historian appointed by the 
crow^n. 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 27 

most marvellous stories to relate of every tower, and vault, 
and gateway of the fortress, in all of which he places the most 
implicit faith. 

Most of these he has derived, according to his own 
account, from his grandfather, a little legendary tailor, who 5 
lived to the age of nearly a hundred years, during which he 
made but two migrations beyond the precincts of the fortress. 
His shop, for the greater part of a century, was the resort of 
a knot of venerable gossips, where they would pass half the 
night talking about old times, and the wonderful events and lo 
hidden secrets of the place. The whole living, moving, think- 
ing, and acting of this historical little tailor had thus been 
bounded by the walls of the Alhambra ; within them he had 
been born, within them he lived, breathed, and had his being ; 
within them he died and was buried. Fortunately for 15 
posterity his traditionary lore died not with him. The 
authentic Mateo, when an urchin, used to be ian attentive 
listener to the narratives of his grandfather, and of the 
gossiping group assembled round the shop-board, and is thus 
possessed of a stock of valuable knowledge concerning the 20 
Alhambra, not to be found in books, and well worthy the 
attention of every curious traveler. 

Such are the personages that constitute my regal household; 
and I question whether any of the potentates, Moslem or 
Christian, who have preceded me in the palace, have been 25 
waited upon with greater fidelity, or enjoyed a serener sway. 

When I rise in the morning, Pepe, the stuttering lad from 
the gardens, brings me a tribute of fresh-culled flowers, which 
are afterward arranged in vases by the skillful hand of 
Dolores, who takes a feminine pride in the decoration of my 30 
chambers. My meals are made wherever caprice dictates; 
sometimes in one of the Moorish halls, sometimes under the 
arcades of the Court of Lions, surrounded by flow-ers and 
fountains : and when I walk out, I am conducted by the assid- 
uous Mateo to the most romantic retreats of the mountains, 35 
and delicious haunts of the adjacent valleys, not one of which 
but is the scene of some wonderful tale. 



28 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

Though fond of passing the greater part of my day alone, 
yet I occasionally repair in the evenings to the little domestic 
circle of Doiia Antonia. This is generally held in an old 
Moorish chamber, which serves the good dame for parlor, 
5 kitchen, and hall of audience, and which must have boasted 
of some splendor in the time of the Moors, if we may judge 
from the traces yet remaining; but a rude fireplace has been 
made in modern times in one corner, the smoke from which 
has discolored the walls, and almost obliterated the ancient 

lo arabesques. A window, with a balcony overhanging the val- 
ley of the Darro, lets in the cool evening breeze ; and here I 
take my frugal supper of fruit and milk, and mingle with the 
conversation of the family. There is a natural talent or 
mother-wit, as it is called, about the Spaniards, which renders 

15 them intellectual and agreeable companions, whatever may be 
their condition in life, or however imperfect may have been 
their education: add to this, they are never vulgar; nature 
has endowed them with an inherent dignity of spirit. The 
good Tia Antonia is a woman of strong and intelligent, though 

20 uncultivated mind; and the bright-eyed Dolores, though she 
has read but three or four books in the whole course of her 
life, has an engaging mixture of naivete and good sense, and 
often surprises me by the pungency of her artless sallies. 
Sometimes the nephew entertains us by reading some old 

25 comedy of Calderon or Lope de Vega, to which he is evi- 
dently prompted by a desire to improve as well as amuse 
his cousin Dolores; though, to his great mortification, the 
little damsel generally falls asleep before the first act is com- 
pleted. Sometimes Tia Antonia has a little levee of humble 

30 friends and dependents, the inhabitants of the adjacent ham- 
let, or the wives of the invalid soldiers. These look up to her 
with great deference, as the custodian of the palace, and pay 
their court to her by bringing the news of the place, or the 
rumors that may have straggled up from Granada. In listen- 



25 Calderon (kal'de-ron), T^ope tie Vega (lo'pa da va'gah) : Celebrated 
Spanish dramatic authors. Lope is said to have written over two thousand 
dramas. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 29 

ing to these evening gossipings I have picked up many curious 
facts illustrative of the manners of the people and the pecul- 
iarities of the neighborhood. 

These are simple details of simple pleasure; it is the nature 
of the place alone that gives them interest and importance. 5 
I tread haunted ground, and am surrounded by romantic asso- 
ciations. From earliest boyhood, when, on the banks of the 
Hudson, I first pored over the pages of old Gines Perez de 
Hytas's apocryplial but chivalresque history of the civil wars 
of Granada, and the feuds of its gallant cavaliers, the Zegris lo 
and Abencerrages, that city has ever been a subject of my 
waking dreams ; and often have I trod in fancy the romantic 
halls of the Alhambra. Behold for once a day-dream real- 
ized; jet I can scarce credit my senses, or believe that I do 
indeed inhabit the palace of Boabdil, and look down from its i5 
balconies upon chivalric Granada. As I loiter through these 
Oriental chambers, and hear the murmur of fountains and the 
song of the nightingale; as I inhale the odor of the rose, and 
feel the influence of the balmy climate, I am almost tempted 
to fancy myself in the paradise of Mahomet, and that the 20 
plump little Dolores is one of the bright-eyed houris, destined 
to administer to the happiness of true believers. 



21. Hoiiris (how'riz): Nymphs of paradise, who, according to the Koran, 
■will attend the faithful. 



30 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 



Inhabitants of the Alhambra. 

I HAVE often observed that the more proudly a mansion has 
been tenanted in the day of its prosperity, the humbler are its 
inhabitants in the day of its decline, and that the palace of a 
king commonly ends in being the nestling-place of a beggar. 
5 The Alhambra is in a rapid state of similar transition. 
Whenever a tower falls to decay, it is seized upon by some 
tatterdemalion family, who become joint-tenants, with the 
bats and owls, of its gilded halls; and hang their rags, those 
standards of poverty, out of its windows and loop-holes. 

10 I have amused myself with remarking some of the motley 
characters that have thus usurped the ancient abode of roy- 
alty, and who seem as if placed here to give a farcical termina- 
tion to the drama of human pride. One of these even bears 
the mockery of a regal title. It is a little old woman named 

15 Maria Antonia Sabonea, but who goes by the appellation of 
la Eeyna Coquina, or the Cockle-queen. She is small enough 
to be a fairy; and a fairy she may be for aught I can find 
out, for no one seems to know her origin. Her habitation is 
in a kind of closet under the outer staircase of the palace, and 

20 she sits in the cool stone corridor, plying her needle and sing- 
ing from morning till night, with a ready joke for every one 
that passes; for though one of the poorest, she is one of the 
merriest little women breathing. Her great merit is a gift for 
story-telling, having, I verily believe, as many stories at her 

25 command as the inexhaustible Scheherezade of the Thousand 
and One Nights. Some of these I have heard her relate in the 
evening tertulias of Dame Antonia, at which she is occasion- 
ally a humble attendant. 
That there must be some fairy gift about this mysterious 



25. Scheherezade (she-be're zade^ : The daugrhter of the ffrand vizier of 
the Indies, who relates the tales of the '* Arabian Nights" to the sultan 
Schahriah . 

27. Tertulia(ter-too'le ah): A club or evening party. 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 31 

little old woman, would appear from her extraordinary luck, 
since, notwithstanding her being very little, very ugly,, and 
very poor, she lias had, according to her own account, five 
husbands and a half, reckoning as a half one a young dragoon, 
who died during courtship. A rival personage to this little 5 
fairy queen is a portly old fellow with a bottle-nose, who goes • 
about in a rusty garb, with a cocked hat of oil-skin and a red 
cockade. He is one of the legitimate sons of the Alhambra, 
and has lived here all iiis life, tilling various offices, such as 
deputy alguazil, sexton of the parochial church, and marker lo 
of a fives-court established at the foot of one of the towers. 
He is as poor as a rat, but as proud as he is ragged, boasting 
of his descent from the illustrious house of Aguilar, from 
which sprang Gonzalvo of Cordova, the grand captain. Nay, 
he actually bears the name of Alonzo de Aguilar, so renowned 15 
in the history of the Conquest, though the graceless wags of 
the fortress have given him the title of el padre santo, or the 
holy father, the usual appellation of tlie Pope, which I had 
thought ^00 sacred in the eyes of true Catholics to be thus 
ludicrously applied. It is a whimsical caprice of fortune to 20 
present, in the grotesque person of this tatterdemalion, a 
namesake and descendant of the proud Alonzo de Aguilar, the 
mirror of Andalusian chivalry, leading an almost mendicant 
existence about this once haughty fortress, which his ancestor 
aided to reduce; yet such might have been the lot of the de- 25 
scendants of Agamemnon and Achilles, had they lingered 
about the ruins of Troy ! 

Of this motley community, I find the family of my gossip- 
ing squire, Mateo Ximenes, to form, from their numbers at 

10. Alguazil (al-grwah-zeel'): A constable. 

11. Marker of ,a fives-court : One who keeps the score at the game of 
fives or hand-tennis. 

14. Gonzalvo : For the deeds of this great hero, see Prescott's " Histoi-y 
of Ferdinand and Isabella." He was the Sir Walter Raleigh of Spanish 
chivalry. " His splendid military successes have made the name of Glouzalvo 
as familiar to his countrymen as that of Cid, which, floating down the stream 
of popular melody, has been treasured up as a part of the national history." 
The romantic death of his brother, Alonzo de Aguilar (ah-ghe-lar'), is cele- 
brated in the ballad, " Death of Don Alonzo of Aguilar " (Lockhart's " Span- 
ish Ballads"). 

26. Agamemnon, Achilles (ag-a-mem'non, a-kil'leez): The heroes of 
Homer's "|Iliad, ' leaders of the Greeks in the war against Troy. 



32 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

least, a very important part. His boast of being a son of the 
Alhambra is not unfounded. His family has inhabited the 
fortress ever since the time of the Conquest, handing down an 
hereditary poverty from father to son; not one of them having 
5 ever been known to be worth a maravedi. His father, by 
trade a ribbon-weaver, and who succeeded the historical tailor 
as the" head of the family, is now near seventy years of age, 
and lives in a hovel of reeds and plaster, built by his own 
hands, just above the iron gate. The furniture consists of a 

lo crazy bed, a table, and two or three chairs; a wooden chest 
containing, besides his scanty clothing, the " archives of the 
family." These are nothing more nor less than the papers of 
various lawsuits sustained by different generations; by which 
it would seem that, with all their apparent carelessness and 

15 good humor, they are a litigious brood. Most of the suits 
have been brought against gossiping neighbors for questioning 
the purity of their blood, and denying their being Christianos 
viejos, i.e., old Christians, without Jewish or Moorish taint. 
In fact, I doubt whether this jealousy about their blood has 

20 not kept them so poor in purse: spending all their earnings on 
escribanos and alguazils. The pride of the hovel is an 
escutcheon suspended against the wall, in which are em- 
blazoned quarterings of the arms of the Marquis of Caiesedo, 
and of various other noble houses, with which this poverty- 

25 stricken brood claim affinity. 

As to Mateo himself, who is now about thirty-five years of 
age, he has done his utmost to perpetuate his line and con- 
tinue the poverty of the family, having a wife and a numerous 
progeny, who inhabit an almost dismantled hovel in the 

30 hamlet. How they manage to subsist. He only who sees into 
all mysteries can tell ; the subsistence of a Spanish family of 
the kind is always a riddle to me; yet they do subsist, and 

5. Maravedi (mar-a-va'dl): A Spanish coin worth about one quarter of a 
cent. 

21. Esci'ibano (es-kre-bah'no): A notary public. 

2;i Quarter! II g:.s : When a family was entitled by inheritance to more 
than oue coat-of-arms, the escutcheon or shield was divided usually into 
four parts, quarieriugs, and each family device placed in a separate com- 
partment. 



PALACE OF THE AIJIAMBKA. 33 

what is more, appear to enjoy tlieir existence. The wife takes 
her holiday stroll on the Paseo of Granada, with a child in 
her arms and half a dozen at her heels; and the eldest 
daughter, now verging into womanhood, dresses her hair with 
flowers, and dances gayly to the castanets. 5 

There are two classes of people to whom life seems one long 
holiday, — the very rich and the very poor; one, because they 
need do nothing; the other, because they have nothing to do; 
but there are none who understand the art of doing nothing 
and living upon nothing better than the poor classes of Spain. lo 
Climate does one half, and temperament the rest. Give a 
Spaniard the shade in summer and the sun in winter, a little 
bread, garlic, oil, and garbances, an old brown cloak and a 
guitar, and let the world roll on as it pleases. Talk of poverty ! 
with him it has no disgrace. It sits upon him with a gran- 15 
diose style, like his ragged cloak. He is a hidalgo, even when 
in rags. 

The ' ' sons of the Alhambra " are an eminent illustration of 
this practical philosophy. As the Moors imagined that the 
celestial paradise hung over this favored spot, so I am inclined 20 
at times to fancy that a gleam of the golden age still lingers 
about this ragged community. They possess nothing, they do 
nothing, they care for nothing. Yet, though apparently idle 
all the week, they are as observant of all holy days and saints' 
days as the most laborious artisan. They attend all fetes and 25 
dancings in Granada and its vicinity, light bonfires on the 
hills on St. John's eve, and dance away the moonlight nights 

2. Paseo (pah-sa'o): A public walk. 

5. Castanets (cas'ta-nets) : Little instruments held in the hands and 
clapped with the fingers, much used by the Moors and Spaniards in their 
dances. The word means chestnut, which they resemble in shape. See 
illustration in dictionary. 

13. Garbances: Chick peas ; a kind of pulse, much used as food in 
Spain 

16. Hidalgo (M-dal'go): A Spanish gentleman by birth, who hp.s the right 
to be called Don. The word is from the L. fili^is Italicus, Itahan son, i.e., one 
upon whom the right of Roman citizenship has been conferred. 

27. St, John's eve: "A night frequently ahuded to in the old Spanish 
stories and ballads, as one devoted, both by Moors and Christians, to gayer 
superstitions and adventures more various than belonged to any other of 
the old national liolidays" (Ticknor's "History of Spanish Literature'"'). 
This holiday was June 24, celebrating the birth of John the Baptist. See, 
in Lockliart, " Song for the morning of the day of St. John," and "The 
Admiral Guarinos." 



34 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

on the harvest-home of a small [field within the precincts of 
the fortress, which yields a few bushels of wheat. 

Before concluding these remarks, I must mention one of the 
amusements of the place, which has particularly struck me. 
5 I had repeatedly observed a long lean fellow perched on the 
top of one of the towers, maneuvering two or three fishing- 
rods, as though he were angling for the stars. I was for some 
time perplexed by the evolutions of this aerial fisherman, and 
my perplexity increased on observing others employed in like 

10 manner on different parts of the battlements and bastions; it 
was not until I consulted Mateo Ximenes that I solved the 
mystery. 

It seems that the pure and airy situation of this fortress has 
rendered it, like the castle of Macbeth, a prolific breeding- 

15 place for swallows and martlets, who sport about its towers in 
myriads, with the holiday glee of urchins just let loose from 
school. To entrap these birds in their giddy circlings, with 
hooks baited with flies, is one of the favorite amusements of 
the ragged "sons of the Alhambra," who, with the good-for- 

20 nothing ingenuity of arrant idlers, have thus invented the art 
of angling in the sky. 



1. Harvest-liome : The harvesting, or bringing home of the harvest. 
The festival at the conclusion of the harvesting, formerly so much enjoyed 
bv the peasantry, was called harvest-home. 
'14. Banquo says to Duncan, as they are about to enter Macbeth's castle : 
" This guest of summer. 
The temple-haimting martlet, does approve 
By his lov'd mansion ry that the heaven's breath 
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze. 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle: 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd 
The air is delicate." 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 35 



The Hall of Ambassadors. 

In one of my visits to the old Moorish chamber where the 
good Tia Antonia cooks her dinner and receives her company, 
I observed a mysterious door in one corner, leading apparently 
into the ancient part of the edifice. My curiosity being 
aroused, I opened it, and found myself in a narrow, blind 5 
corridor, groping along which I came to the head of a dark, 
winding staircase, leading down an angle of the Tower of 
Comares. Down this staircase I descended darkling, guiding 
myself by the wall until I came to a small door at the bottom, 
throwing which open, I was suddenly dazzled by emerging lo 
into the brilliant antechamber of the Hall of Ambassadors, 
with the fountain of the court of the Alberca sparkling before 
me. The antechamber is separated from the court by an elegant 
gallery, supported by slender columns with spandrels of open- 
work in the Morisco style. At each end of the antechamber 15 
are alcoves, and its ceiling is richly stuccoed and painted. 
Passing through a magnificent portal, I found myself in the 
far-famed Hall of Ambassadors, the audience chamber of the 
Moslem monarchs. It is said to be thirty-seven feet square 
and sixty feet high; occupies the whole interior of the Tower 20 
of Comares; and still bears the traces of past magnificence, 
rhe walls are beautifully stuccoed and decorated with Morisco 
fancifulness; the lofty ceiling was originally of the same 
favorite material, with the usual frost-work and pensile orna- 
ments or stalactites; which, with the embellishments of vivid 25 
coloring and gilding, must have been gorgeous in the extreme. 

8. Darkling : Adv., in the dark, blindly. 

14. Spandrels : The triangular spaces between the outer curves of ad- 
joining arches and the horizontal line or string-course abovj them. 

15. Morisco (mo-ris'ko): Moorish or Moresque style. How do Moorish 
columns and arches differ from the Grecian and the Gothic? 

24. Pensile (pen'sil): Hanging, pendent. From h. pendere, to hang, pp. 
pensus. What other words from this root? 

26. Says Irving in a note: "To an uupracticed eye the light rilievos and 
fanciful arabesques which cover the walls of the Alhambra appear 10 have 
been sculptured by the hand, with a minute and patient labor, an inexhaust- 



36 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

Unfortunately it gave way during an earthquake, and brought 
down with it an immense arch which traversed the hall. It 
was replaced by the present vault or dome of larch or cedar, 
with intersecting ribs, the whole curiously wrought and richly 
5 colored; still Oriental in its character, reminding one of 
" those ceilings of cedar and vermilion that we read of in the 
Prophets and the Arabian Nights, " 

From the great height of the vault above the windows, the 
uj^per part of the hall is almost lost in obscurity; yet there is 

lo a magnificence as well as solemnity in the gloom, as through 
it we have gleams of rich gilding and the brilliant tints of the 
Moorish pencil. 

The royal throne was placed opposite the entrance in a 
recess, which still bears an inscription intimating that Yusef I. 

15 (the monarch who completed the Alhambra) made this the 
throne of his empire. Everything in this noble hall seems to 
have been calculated to surround the throne with impressive 
dignity and splendor; there was none of the elegant voluptu- 
ousness which reigns in other parts of the palace. The tower 

20 is of massive strength, domineering over the whole edifice and 
overhanging the steep hill-side. On three sides of the Hall of 
Ambassadors are windows cut through the immense thickness 
of the walls, and commanding extensive prospects. The bal- 
cony of the central window especially looks down upon tke 

25 verdant valley of the Darro, with its walks, its groves and 
gardens. To the left it enjoys a distant prospect of the Vega; 
while directly in front rises the rival height of the Albaycin, 
with its medley of streets, and terraces, and gardens, and 
once crowned by a fortress that vied in power with the Alham- 



ible variety of detail, yet a general uniformity and harmony of design truly 
astonishing; and this may especially be said of the vaults and cupolas, 
•which are wrought like honeycombs, or frost-work, with stalactites and 
pendants which confound the beholder with the seeming intricacy of their 
patterns. The astonishment ceases, however, when it is discovered that 
this is all stucco-work; plates of plaster of Paris, cast in molds and skill- 
fully joined so as to form patterns of every size and form. . . . Much gilding 
was used in the stucco-work, especially of the cupolas and the interstices 
were delicately penciled with brilliant colors, such as vermilion and lapia 
lazuli, laid on with the wliites of eggs." 

7. From Urquhart's "Pillars of Hercules." 

27. Albaycin (al-bay'sin) : A suburb of Granada. 



PALA.CE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 37 

bra. "Ill-fated the man who lost all this!" exclaimed 
Charles V., as he looked forth from this window npon the 
enchanting scenery it commands. 

The balcony of the window where this royal exclamation 
was made, has of late become one of my favorite resorts, I 5 
have just been seated there, enjoying the close of a long brill- 
iant day. The sun, as he sank behind the purple mountains 
of Alhama, sent a stream of effulgence up the valley of the 
Darro, that spread a melancholy pomp over the ruddy towers 
of the Alhambra; while the Vega, covered with a slight sultry lo 
vapor that caught the setting rays, seemed spread out in the 
distance like a golden sea. Not a breath of air disturbed the 
stillness of the hour, and though the faint sound of music and 
merriment now and then rose from the gardens of the Darro, 
it but rendered more impressive the monumental silence of 15 
the pile which overshadowed me. It was one of those hours 
and scenes in which memory asserts an almost magical power ; 
and, like the evening sun beaming on these moldering towers, 
sends back her retrospective rays to light up the glories of the 
past. 20 

As I sat watching the effect of the declining daylight upon 
this Moorish pile, T was led into a consideration of the light, 
elegant, and voluptuous character prevalent throughout its 
internal architecture, and to contrast it with the grand but 
gloomy solemnity of tlie Gothic edifices reared by the Spanish 25 
conquerors. The very architecture thus bespeaks the opposite 
and irreconcilable natures of the two warlike people who so 
long battled here for the mastery of the Peninsula. By de 
grees I fell into a course of musing upon the singular fortunes 
of the Arabian or Moriseo Spaniards, whose whole existence is 30 
as a tale that is told, and certainly forms one of the most 
anomalous yet splendid episodes in history. Potent and dura- 
ble as was their dominion, we scarcely know how to call them. 
They were a nation without a legitimate country or name. A 
remote wave of the great Arabian inundation, cast upon the 35 
shores of Europe, they seem to have all the impetus of the 
first rush of the torrent. Their career of conquest, from the 



38 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

rock of Gibraltar to the cliffs of the Pyrenees, was as rapid 
and brilliant as the Moslem victories of Syria and Egypt. 
Nay, had they not been checked on the plains of Tours, all 
France, all Europe, might have been overrun with the same 
5 facility as the empires of the East, and the Crescent at this 
day have glittered on the fanes of Paris and London. 

Eepelled within the limits of the Pyrenees, the mixed hordes 
of Asia and Africa, that formed this great irruption, gave up 
the Moslem principle of conquest, and sought to establish in 

10 Spain a peaceful and permanent dominion. As conquerors, 
their heroism was only equalled by their moderation ; and in 
both, for a time, they excelled the nations with whom they 
contended. Severed from their native homes, they loved the 
land given them as they supposed by Allah, and strove to 

15 embellish it with everything that could administer to the 
happiness of man. Laying the foundations of their power in 
a system of wise and equitable laws, diligently cultivating the 
arts and sciences, and promoting agriculture, manufactures, 
and commerce, they gradually formed an empire unrivalled 

20 for its prosperity by any of the empires of Christendom; and 
diligently drawing round them the graces and refinements 
which marked the Arabian empire in the East, at the time of 
its greatest civilization, they diffused the light of Oriental 
knowledge through the western regions of benighted Europe. 

25 The cities of Arabian Spain became the resort of Christian 
artisans, to instruct themselves in the useful arts. The uni- 
versities of Toledo, Cordova, Seville, and Granada were 
sought by the pale student from other lands to acquaint him- 
self with the sciences of the Arabs and the treasured lore of 

30 antiquity; the lovers of the gay science resorted to Cordova 

3. Tours (toor) : The Moors, under the leaders Musa and Taric, entered 
Spain in 711 and advanced triumphantly into France as far as Tours, where 
they were totally defeated in 732, by the French king, Charles Martel. 

5. Crescent : The figure of the new moon, used as the symbol or emblem 
of the Tui-kish power and of Mohammedanism, as the cross is the symbol 
of Christianity. Why is the neiv moon called crescent ? 

14. Allali :"The Arabic name of the Supreme Being. 

30. Gay science : The Troubadours of France called their art of poetry 
the " gay science." Their beautiful songs are still studied and imitated by 
our best poets. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBKA. 39 

and Granada to imbibe the poetry and music of the East; 
and the steel-chxd warriors of the North hastened thither to 
accomplish themselves in the graceful exercises and courteous 
usages of chivalry. 

If the Moslem monuments in Spain, if the Mosque of Cor- 5 
dova, the Alcazar of Seville, and the Alhambra of Granada, 
still bear inscriptions fondly boasting of the power and per- 
manency of their dominion, can the boast be derided as arro- 
gant and vain ? Generation after generation, century after 
century, passed away, and still they maintained possession lo 
of the land. A period elapsed longer than that which has 
passed since England was subjugated by the Norman Con- 
queror, and the descendants of Musa and Taric might as little 
anticipate being driven into exile across the same straits trav- 
ersed by their triumphant ancestors, as the descendants of 15 
Rollo and William, and their veteran peers, may dream of 
being driven back to the shores of Normandy. 

With all this, however, the Moslem empire in Spain was but 
a brilliant exotic, that took no permanent root in the soil it 
embellished. Severed from all their neighbors in the West by 20 
impassable barriers of faith and manners, and separated by 
seas and deserts from their kindred of the East, the Morisco- 
Spaniards were an isolated people. Their whole existence was 
a prolonged, though gallant and chivalric struggle for a foot- 
hold in a usurped land. 25 

They were the outposts and frontiers of Islamism. The 
Peninsula was the great battle-ground where the Gothic con- 

5. Mosque (mosk): A Mohauiinedaii church. The Mosque of Cordova 
is one of the most beautiful specimens of Moorish architecture in Europe, 
with its wonderful labyrinth of pillars, porphyry and jasper and marble of 
many a tint, originally twelve hundred in number. There were nineteen 
gateways of bronze, and four thousand and seven hundred lamps, fed with 
perfumed oil, shed light and fragrance tlirough its brilliant aisles. 

6. Alcazar (al-ka zar'): A fortress, castle, or royal palace. The Alcazar 
of Seville, in beauty and interest, is exceeded only' by the Alhambra. 

13. 3Iusa, Taric (moo'sah, tah'rik): Leaders of the Moors when they 
conquered Spain. 

16. Kollo : The viking who with his Northmen (Normans), entered France 
in the year 912, and took possession of the part called after them Nov- 
niandy. 

16. William : Duke of Normandy, who conquered England in 10G6 and 
ruled it as king. 

27. These Gothic conquerors took possession of Spain in the first half of 



40 PALACE OF THE ALTIAMBRA. 

querors of the North and the Moslem conquerors of the East 
met and strove for mastery ; and the fiery courage of the 
Arab was at length subdued by the obstinate and persevering 
valor of the Goth. 
5 Never was the annihilation of a people more complete than 
that of the Morisco-Spaniards. Where are they ? Ask the 
shores of Barbary and its desert places. The exiled remnant 
of their once powerful empire disappeared among the bar- 
barians of Africa, and ceased to be a nation. They have not 

loeven left a distinct name behind them, though for nearly eight 
centuries they were a distinct people. The home of their 
adoption, and of their occupation for ages, refuses to acknowl- 
edge them, except as invaders and usurpers. A few broken 
monuments are all that remain to bear witness to their power 

15 and dominion, as solitary rocks, left far in the interior, bear 
testimony to the extent of some vast inundation. Such is the 
Alhambra; — a Moslem pile in the midst of a Christian land; 
an Oriental palace amidst the Gothic edifices of the West; an 
elegant memento of a brave, intelligent, and graceful people, 

20 who conquered, ruled, flourished, and passed away. 



the fifth century- The name of the principal tribe, the Vandals, is pi^e- 
served in the beautiful word Andalusia. Origin and meaning of the word 
vandalism .^ 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBKA. 41 



The Mysterious Chambers. 

As I was rambling one day about the Moorish halls, my at- 
tention was, for the first time, attracted to a door in a remote 
gallery, communicating apparently with some part of the 
Alhambra which I had not yet explored. I attempted to open 
it, but it was locked. I knocked, but no one answered, and 5 
the sound seemed to reverberate through empty chambers. 
Here then was a mystery. Here was the haunted wing of the 
castle. How was I to get at the dark secrets here shut up 
from the public eye ? Should I come privately at night with 
lamp and sword, according to the prying custom of heroes of 10 
romance; or should I endeavor to draw the secret from Pepe 
the stuttering gardener; or the ingenuous Dolores, or the 
loquacious Mateo ? Or should I go frankly and openly to 
Dame Antonia the chatelaine, and ask her all about it ? I 
chose the latter course, as being the simplest though the least 15 
romantic; and found, somewhat to my disappointment, that 
there was no mystery in the case. I was welcome to explore 
the apartment, and there was the key. 

Thus provided, I returned forthwith to the door. It opened 
as I had surmised, to a range of vacant chambers; but they 20 
were quite different from the rest of the palace. The architec- 
ture, though rich and antiquated, was European. There was 
nothing Moorish about it. The first two rooms were lofty; 
the ceilings, broken in many places, were of cedar, deeply 
paneled and skillfiilly carved with fruits and flowers, inter- 25 
mingled with grotesque masks or faces. 

The walls had evidently in ancient times been hung with 
damask; but now were naked, and scrawled over by that class 
of aspiring travelers who defile noble monuments with their 
worthless names. The windows, dismantled and open to wind 30 
and weather, looked out into a charming little secluded 
garden, where an alabaster fountain sparkled among roses and 
myrtles, and was surrounded by orange and citron trees, some 



42 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

of which flnng their branches into the chambers. Beyond 
these rooms were two saloons, longer but less lofty, looking 
also into the garden. In the compartments of the paneled 
ceilings were baskets of fruit and garlands of flowers, painted 
5 by no mean hand, and in tolerable preservation. The walls also 
had been painted in fresco in the Italian style, but the paint- 
ings were nearly obliterated; the windows were in the same 
shattered state with those of the other chambers. This fanci- 
ful suite of rooms terminated in an open gallery with balus- 

lo trades, running at right angles along another side of the gar- 
den. The whole apartment, so delicate and elegant in its 
decorations, so choice and sequestered in its situation along 
this retired little garden, and so different in architecture from 
the neighboring halls, awakened an interest in its history. I 

15 found on inquiry that it was an apartment fitted up by Italian 
artists in the early part of the last century, at the time when 
Philip V. and his second wife, the beautiful Elizabetta of 
Farnese, daughter of the t>uke of Parma, were expected at 
the Alhambra. It was destined for the queen and the ladies 

20 of her train. One of the loftiest chambers had been her 
sleeping-room. A narrow^ staircase, now walled up, led up to 
a delightful belvidere, originally a mirador of the Moorish 
sultanas, communicating with the harem; but which was fitted 
up as a boudoir for the fair Elizabetta, and still retains the 

25 name of el tocador de la Reyna, or the queen's toilette. 

One window of the royal s!eeping-room commanded a pros- 
pect of the Generalife and its embowered terraces; another 
looked out into the little secluded garden I have mentioned, 
which was decidedly Moorish in its character, and also had its 

30 history. It was in fact the garden of Lindaraxa, so often 

22. Belvidere (bel-vi-deer'): A part of the upper story of a building, open 
to the air on one or more sides, affording a fine view and a means of enjoy- 
ing the cool evening breezes. From hel, beautiful, and vedere. a view. 

22. Mirador (mir-a-dore'): The same as belvidere. Any balcony afford- 
ing an extensive view. Sp. mirm\ behold; L. mirari, wonder at. How are 
the words mirage, mirror, admire, miracle, associated with tliis ? 

23. Sultana (sool-tah'uah): The wife of a sultan, a Moorish emperor or 
king. 

27. Generalife (Sp. ha-ner-ah-lee'fa): This was a summer palace of the 
Moorish kings, to which they resorted during the sultry months to enjoy a 
more breezy region than that of the Alhambra, 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 43 

mentioned in descriptions of the Alhambra, but who this Lin- 
daraxa, was I had never heard explained. A little research 
gave me the few particulars known about her. She was a 
Moorish beauty who flourished in the court of Muhamed the 
Left-Handed, and was the daughter of his loyal adherent, the 5 
alcayde of Malaga, who sheltered him in his city when driven 
from the throne. On regaining his crown, the alcayde was 
rewarded for his fidelity. His daughter had her apartment 
in the Alhambra, and was given by the king in marriage to 
Nasar, a young Cetimerian prince descended from Aben Hud lo 
the Just. Their espousals were doubtless celebrated in the 
royal palace, and their honeymoon may have passed among 
these very bowers. 

Four centuries had elapsed since the fair Lindaraxa passed 
away, yet how much of the fragile beauty of the scenes she i5 
inhabited remained! The garden still bloomed in which she 
delighted; the fountain still presented the crystal mirror in 
which her charms may once have been reflected; the ala- 
baster, it is true, had lost its whiteness; the basin beneath, , 
overrun with weeds, had become the lurking-place of the 20 
lizard, but there was something in the very decay that en- 
hanced the interest of the scene, speaking as it did of that 
mutability, the irrevocable lot of man and all his works. 

The desolation too of these chambers, once the abode of the 
proud and elegant Elizabetta, had a more touching charm for 25 
me than if I had beheld them in their pristine splendor, glit- 
tering with the pageantry of a court. 

When I returned to my quarters, in the governor's apart- 
ment, everything seemed tame and commonplace after the 
poetic region I had left. The thought suggested itself: Why 30 
could I not change my quarters to these vacant chambers? 
that would indeed be living in the Alhambra, surrounded by 
its gardens and fountains, as in the time of the Moorish 

7. Alcayde (al-kade') : In Spain, a commander of a fortress or fortified 
town. 

13. One of the things in which the Moorish kings interfered was in the 
marriage of their nobles: hence it came that all the senors attached to the 
royal person were married in the palace; and there was always a chamber 
destined for the ceremony. — Irving. 



44 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

sovereigns. I proposed the change to Dame Antonia and her 
family, and it occasioned vast surprise. They could not con- 
ceive any rational inducement for the choice of an apartment 
so forlorn, remote, and solitary. Dolores exclaimed at its 
5 frightful loneliness ; nothing but bats and owls flitting about, 
— and then a fox and wildcat kept in the vaults of the neigh- 
boring baths, and roamed about at night. The good Tia had 
more reasonable objections. The neighborhood was infested 
by vagrants ; gypsies swarmed in the caverns of the adjacent 

lo hills; the palace was ruinous and easy to be entered in many 
places; the rumor of a stranger quartered alone in one of the 
remote and ruined apartments, out of the hearing of the rest 
of the inhabitants, might tempt unwelcome visitors in the 
night, especially as foreigners were alw^ays supposed to be 

15 well stocked with money. I was not to be diverted from my 
humor, however, and my will was law with these good people. 
So, calling in the assistance of a carpenter, and the ever 
officious Mateo Ximenes, the doors and windows were soon 
placed in a state of tolerable security, and the sleeping-room 

20 of the stately Elizabetta prepared for my reception. Mateo 
kindly volunteered as a body-guard to sleep in my ante- 
chamber; but I did not think it worth while to put his valor 
to the proof. 

With all the hardihood I had assumed and all the precau- 

25 tions I had taken, I must confess the first night passed in 
these quarters was inexpressibly dreary. I do not think it 
was so much the apprehension of dangers from without that 
affected me, as the character of the place itself, with all its 
strange associations: the deeds of violence committed there; 

30 the tragical ends of many of those who had once reigned there 
in splendor. As I passed beneath the fated halls of the Tower 
of Comares on the way to my chamber, I called to mind a 
quotation, that used to thrill me in the days of boyhood: 

" Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns; 
oe And, as the portal opens to receive me, 

A voice in sullen echoes through the courts 
Tells of a nameless deed l" 

37. The motto on the title-page of Mrs. Radcliffe's romance. "The Mys- 
teries of Udolpho," 



PALACE OF THE ALTIAMBRA. 45 

The whole family escorted me to my chamber, and took 
leave of me as of one engaged on a perilous enterprise; and 
when I heard their retreating steps die away along the waste 
•antechambers and echoing galleries, and turned the key of 
my door, I was reminded of those lio]jgoblin stories, where 5 
the hero is left to accomplish the adventure of an enchanted 
house. 

Even the thoughts of the fair Elizabetta and the beauties of 
her court, w^ho had onee graced these chambers, now, by a 
perversion of fancy, added to the gloom. Here was the scene lo 
of their transient gayety and loveliness; here were the very 
traces of their elegance and enjoyment; but what and where 
w^ere they ? Dust and ashes ! tenants of the tomb ! phantoms 
of the memory ! 

A vague and indescribable awe was creeping over me. 1 15 
would fain have ascribed it to the thouglits of robbers 
awakened by the evening's conversation, but I felt it was 
something more unreal and absurd. The long-buried super- 
stitions of the nursery were reviving, and asserting their 
power over my imagination. Everything began to be affected 20 
by the working of my mind. The whispering of the wind 
among the citron-trees beneath my window had something 
sinister. I cast ray eyes into the garden of Lindaraxa; the 
groves presented a gulf of shadows; the thickets, indistinct 
and ghastly shapes. I was glad to close the window, but my 25 
chamber itself became infected. There was a slight rustlino- 
noise overhead; a bat suddenly emerged from a broken panel 
of the ceiling, flitting about the room and athwart my solitary 
lamp; and as the fateful bird almost tlouted my face with his 
noiseless wing, the grotesque faces carved in high relief in the 30 
cedar ceiling, whence he had emerged, seemed to mope and 
mow at me. 

Bousing myself, and half smiling at this temporary weak- 
ness, I resolved to brave it out in the true spirit of the hero 
of the enchanted house; so, taking lamp in hand, I sallied 35 
forth to make a tour of the palace. Notwithstanding every 
mental exertion the task was a severe one. I had to traverse 



46 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

waste halls and mysterious galleries, wliere the rays of the lamp 
extended but a short distance around me. I walked, as it 
were, in a mere halo of light, walled in by impenetrable dark- 
ness. The vaulted corridors were as caverns; the ceilings of 
5 the halls were lost in gloom. I recalled all that had been said 
of the danger from interlopers in these remote and ruined 
apartments. Might not some vagrant foe be lurking before or 
behind me, in the outer darkness? My own shadow, east 
upon the wall, began to disturb me. The echoes of my own 

lo footsteps along the corridors made me pause and look round. 
I was traversing scenes fraught with dismal recollections. One 
dark passage led down to the mosque where Yusef, the Moor- 
ish monarch, the finisher of the Alhambra, had been basely 
murdered. In another place I trod the gallery where another 

15 monarch had been struck down by the poniard of a relative 
whom he had thwarted in his love. 

A low murmuring sound, as of stifled voices and clanking 
chains, now reached me. It seemed to come from the Hall of 
the Abencerrages. I knew it to be the rush of water through 

20 subterranean channels, but it sounded strangely in the night, 
and reminded me of the dismal stories to which it had given 
rise. 

Soon, however, my ear was assailed by sounds too fearfully 
real to be the work of fancy. As I was crossing the Hall of 

25 Ambassadors, low moans and broken ejaculations rose, as it 
were, from beneath my feet. I paused and listened. They 
then appeared to be outside of the tower— then again within. 
Then broke forth bowlings as of an animal— then stifled 
shrieks and inarticulate ravings. Heard in that dead hour 

30 and singular place, the effect was thrilling. I had no desire 
for further perambulation; but returned to my chamber with 
infinitely more alacrity than I had sallied forth, and drew my 
breath more freely when once more within its walls and the 
door bolted behind me. When I awoke in the morning, with 

35 the sun shining in at my window and lighting up every part 
of the building with his cheerful and truth-telling beams, I 
could scarcely recall the shadows and fancies conjured up by 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 47 

the gloom of the preceding night; or believe that the scenes 
around me, so naked and apparent, could have been clothed 
with such imaginary horrors. 

Still, the dismal bowlings and ejaculations I had heard were 
not ideal; they were soon accounted for, however, by my 5 
handmaid Dolores: being the ravings of a poor maniac, a 
brother of her aunt, who was subject to violent paroxysms, 
during which he was confined in a vaulted room beneath the 
Hall of Ambassadors. 

In the course of a few evenings a thorough change took 10 
place in the scene and its associations. The moon, which 
when I took possession of my new apartments was invisible, 
gradually gained each evening upon the darkness of the 
night, and at length rolled in full splendor above the towers, 
pouring a flood of tempered light into every court and hall. 15 
The garden beneath my window, before wrapped in gloom, 
was gently lighted up, the orange and citron trees were tipped 
with silver: the fountain sparkled in the moonbeams, and 
even the blush of the rose was faintly visible. 

I now felt the poetic merit of the Arabic inscription on the 20 
walls, — " How beauteous is this garden; where the flowers of 
the earth vie with the stars of heaven. What can compare 
with the vase of yon alabaster fountain filled with crystal 
water ? nothing but the moon in her fullness, shining in the 
midst of an unclouded sky !" 25 

On such heavenly nights I would sit for hours at my window 
inhaling the sweetness of the garden, and musing on the 
checkered fortunes of those whose history was dimly shadowed 
out in the elegant memorials around. Sometimes, when all 
was quiet, and the clock from the distant cathedral of Granada 30 
struck the midnight hour, I have sallied out on another tour 
and wandered over the whole building; but how different 
from my first tour! No longer dark and mysterious; no 
longer peopled with shadowy foes; no longer recalling scenes 
of violence and murder; all was open, spacious, beautiful; 35 
everything called up pleasing and romantic fancies; Lindaraxa 
once more walked in her garden ; the gay chivalry of Moslem 



48 TALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

Granada once more glittered about the Court of Lions ! Who 
can do justice to a moonlight night in such a climate and such 
a place ? The temperature of a summer midnight in Andalusia 
is perfectly ethereal. We seem lifted up into a purer atmos- 
5 phere; we feel a serenity of soul, a buoyancy of spirits, an 
elasticity of frame, which render mere existence happiness. 
But when moonlight is added to all this, the effect is like 
enchantment. Under its plastic sway the Alhambra seems to 
regain its pristine glories. Every rent and chasm of time, 

lo every moldering tint and weather-stain is gone; the marble 
resumes its original whiteness; the long colonnades brighten 
in the moonbeams; the halls are illuminated with a softened 
radiance, — we tread the enchanted palace of an Arabian 
tale! 

15 What a delight, at such a time, to ascend to the little airy 
pavilion of the queen's toilet (el tocador de la reyna), which, 
like a bird-cage, overhangs the valley of the Darro, and gaze 
from its light arcades upon the moonlight prospect ! To the 
right, the swelling mountains of the Sierra Nevada, robbed of 

20 their ruggedness and softened into a fairy land, with their 
snowy summits gleaming like silver clouds against the deep 
blue sky. And then to lean over the parapet of the Tocador 
and gaze down upon Granada and the Albaycin spread out 
like a map below; all buried in deep repose; the white palaces 

25 and convents sleeping in the moonshine, and beyond all these 
the vapory oga fading away like a dreamland in the dis- 
tance. 

Sometimes the faint click of castanets rises from the Ala- 
meda, where some gay Andalusians are dancing away the 

30 summer night. Sometimes the dubious tones of a guitar 
and the notes of an amorous voice tell perchance the where- 
about of some moonstruck lover serenading his lady's win- 
dow. 



28. Alameda (ah-lah ma'tlah): The. general name for a public walk shaded 
with trees (literally, a poplar-grove). This Alameda is by the river .Xenil 
and " enjoys the reputation of being the most beautiful promenade in the 
world." 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMBRA. 49 

Such is a faint picture of the moonlight nights I have 
passed loitering about the courts and halls and balconies of 
this most suggestive pile; "feeding my fancy with sugared 
suppositions," and enjoying that mixture of reverie and sen- 
sation which steals away existence in a southern climate ; so 5 
that it has been almost morning before I have retired to bed, 
and been lulled to sleep by the falling waters of the fountain 
of Lindaraxa. 



50 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 



Panorama from the Tower of Comares. 

It is a serene and beautiful morning: the sun has not gained 
sufficient power to destroy the freshness of the night. What 
a morning to mount to thessummit of the Tower of Comares, 
and take a bird's-eye view of Granada and its environs ! 
5 Come then, worthy reader and comrade, follow my steps 
into this vestibule, ornamented with rich tracery, which opens 
into the Hall of Ambassadors. We will not enter the hall, 
however, but turn to this small door opening into the wall. 
Have a care! here are steep winding steps and but scanty 

loliglit; yet up this narrow, obscure, and spiral staircase, the 
proud monarchs of Granada and their queens have often 
ascended to tlie battlements to watch the api)roach of invad- 
ing armies, or gaze with anxious hearts on the battles in the 
Vega. 

15 At length we have reached the terraced roof, and may take 
breath for a moment, while we cast a general eye over the 
splendid panorama of city and country; of rocky mountain, 
verdant valley, and fertile plain; of castle, cathedral, Moorish 
towers, and Gothic domes, crumbling ruins, and blooming 

20 groves. Let us approach the battlements, and cast our eyes 
immediately below. See, on this side we have the whole plain 
of the Alhambra laid open to us, and can look down into its 
courts and gardens. At the foot of the tower is the Court of 
the Alberca, with its great tank or flshpool, bordered with 

25 flowers; and yonder is the Court of Lions, with its famous 
fountain, and its light Moorish arcades; and in the center of 
the pile is the little garden of Lindaraxa, buried in the heart 
of the building, with its roses and citrons and shrubbery of 
emerald green. 



24, Court of tlie Alberca : A portion of the wall of this court was 
destroyed by fire in 1890. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 61 

That belt of battlements, studded with square towers, 
straggling round the whole brow of the hill, is the outer 
boundary of the fortress. Some of the towers, you may per- 
ceive, are in ruins, and their massive fragments buried among 
vines, fig-trees, and aloes. 5 

Let us look on this northern side of the tower. It is a 
giddy height; the very foundations of the tower rise above the 
groves of the steep hill-side. And see! a long fissure in the 
massive walls shows that the tower has been rent Ijy some of 
the earthquakes which from time to time have thrown Granada lo 
into consternation; and which, sooner or later, must reduce 
this crumbling pile to a mere mass of ruin. The deep narrow 
glen below us, which gradually widens as it opens from the 
mountains, is the valley of the Darro; you see the little river 
winding its way under embowered terraces, and among 1 5 
orchards and flower-gardens. It is a stream famous in old 
times for yielding gold, and its sands are still sifted occasion- 
ally, in search of the precious ore. Some of these white 
pavilions, which here and there gleam from among groves and 
vineyards, were rustic retreats of the Moors, to enjoy the 20 
refreshment of their gardens. Well have they been compared 
by one of their poets to so many pearls set in a bed of 
emeralds. 

The airy palace, with its tall white towers and long arcades, 
which breasts yon mountain, among pompous groves and 25 
hanging gardens, is the Generalife, a summer palace of the 
Moorish kings, to which they resorted during the sultry 
months to enjoy a still more breezy region than that of the 
Alhambra. The naked summit of the height above it, where 
you behold some shapeless ruins, is the Silla del Moro, or seat 30 
of the Moor, so called from having been a retreat of the 
unfortunate Boabdil during the time of an insurrection, where 
he seated himself, and looked down mournfully upon his 
rebellious city. 

A murmuring sound of water now and tlien rises from the 35 
valley. It is from the aqueduct of 3'on Moorish mill, nearly 
at the foot of the hill. The avenue of trees beyond is the 



52 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

Alameda, along the bank of the Darro, a favorite resort in 
evenings, and a rendezvous of lovers in the summer nights, 
when the guitar may be heard at a late hour from the benches 
along its walks. At present you see none but a few loitering 

5 monks there, and a group of water-carriers. The latter are 
burdened with water-jars of ancient Oriental construction, 
such as were used by the Moors. They have been filled at the 
cold and limpid spring called the fountain of Avellanos. Yon 
mountain path leads to the fountain, a favorite resort of 

lo Moslems as well as Christians ; for this is said to be the 
Adinamar (Aynu-1-adamar), the "Fountain of Tears," men- 
tioned by Ibn Batuta the traveler, and celebrated in the his- 
tories and romances of the Moors. 

You start! 'tis nothing but a hawk that we have frightened 

15 from his nest. This old tower is a complete breeding-place 
for vagrant birds; the swallow and martlet abound in every 
chink and cranny, and circle about it the whole day long; 
while at night, when all other birds have gone to rest, the 
moping owl comes out of its lurking-place, and utters its 

20 boding cry from the battlements. See how the hawk we have 
dislodged sweeps away below us, skimming over the tops of 
the trees, and sailing up to the ruins above the Generalife! 

I see you raise your eyes to the snowy summit of yon pile of 
mountains, shining like a white summer cloud in the blue sky. 

25 It is the Sierra Nevada, the pride and delight of Granada; 
the source of her cooling breezes and perpetual verdure, of 
her gushing fountains and perennial streams. It is this 
glorious pile of mountains which gives to Granada that com- 
bination of delights so rare in a southern city,— the fresh 

30 vegetation and temperate airs of a northern climate, with the 
vivifying ardor of a tropical sun, and the cloudless azure of a 
southern sky. It is this aerial treasury of snow, which, 
melting in proportion to the increase of the summer heat, 
sends down rivulets and streams through every glen and gorge 

35 of the Alpuxarras, diffusing emerald verdure and fertility 
throughout a chain of happy and sequestered valleys. 

Those mountains may be well called the glory of Granada. 



PALACE OF THE ATJIAMIJRA. 53 

They dominate the whole extent of Andalusia, and may be 
seen from its most distant parts. The muleteer hails them, as 
he views their frosty peaks from the sultry level of tlie plain; 
and the Spanish mariner on the deck of his bark, far, far off 
on the bosom of the blue Mediterranean, watches them with a 5 
pensive eye, thinks of delightful Granada, and chants, in low 
voice, some old romance about the Moors. 

See to the south at the foot of those mountains a line of 
arid hills, down which a long train of mules is slowly moving. 
Here was the closing scene of Moslem domination. From the lo 
summit of one of those hills the unfortunate Boabdil cast back 
his last look upon Granada, and gave vent to the agony of his 
soul. It is the spot famous in song and story, " The last sigh 
of the Moor." 

Further this w^ay these arid hills slope down into the luxuri- 15 
ous Vega, from which he had just emerged: a blooming 
wilderness of grove and garden, and teeming orchard, with 
the Xenil winding through it in silver links, and feeding 
Innumerable rills; which, conducted through ancient Moorish 
channels, maintain the landscape in perpetual verdure. Here 20 
were the beloved bowers and gardens, and rural pavilions, for 
which the unfortunate Moors fought with such desperate 
valor. The very hovels and rude granges, now^ inhabited by 
boors, show, by the remains of arabesques and other tasteful 
decoration, that they were elegant residences in the days of 25 
the Moslems. Behold, in the very center of this eventful 
plain, a place which in a manner links the history of the Old 
World with that of the New. Yon line of walls and towers 
gleaming in the morning sun is the city of Santa Fe, built by 
the Catholic sovereigns during the siege of Granada, after a 30 
conflagration had destroyed their camp. It was to these walls 
Columbus was called back by the heroic queen, and within 



13. The hill is called " The Hill of Tears." See Prescott's account of the 
departure of Boabdil, 'Ferdinand and Isabella." Pt. I. eh, 15; also, "The 
Flight from Granada," in Lockhart's "Spanish Ballads." 

82. The city was built in eighty days, and the name Santa Fe (Holy Faith) 
given to it by Queen Isabella, who was in the camp at the time. See 
Irving's " Conquest of Granada," II. 41. 



54 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

them the treaty was concluded which led to the discoveryof 
the Western World. Behind yon promontory to the west is 
the bridge of Finos, renowned for many a bloody fight between 
Moors and Christians. At this bridge the messenger overtook 
5 Columbus when, despairing of success with the Spanish 
sovereigns, he was departing to carry his project of discovery 
to the court of France. 

Above the bridge a range of mountains bounds the Vega to 
the west, — the ancient barrier between Granada and the 

lo Christian territories. Among their heights you may still dis- 
cern warrior towns ; their gray walls and battlements seeming 
of a piece with the rocks on which they are built. Here and 
there a solitary atalaya, or watch-tower, perched on a moun- 
tain-peak, looks down as it were from the sky into the valley 

15 on either side. How often have these atalayas given notice, 
by fire at night or smoke by day, of an approaching foe ! It 
was down a cragged defile of these mountains, called the Pass 
of Lope, that the Christian armies descended into the Vega. 
Round the base of yon gray and naked mountain (the moun- 

20 tain of Elvira), stretching its bold rocky promontory into the 
bosom of the plain, the invading squadrons would come burst- 
ing into view, with flaunting banners and clangor of drum and 
trumpet. 
Five hundred years have elapsed since Ismael ben Ferrag, a 

25 Moorish king of Granada, beheld from this very tower an in- 
vasion of the kind, and an insulting ravage of the Vega ; on 
which occasion he displayed an instance of chivalrous mag- 
nanimity, often witnessed in the Moslem i)rinces ; "whose 
history," says an Arabian writer, " abounds in generous actions 

30 and noble deeds that will last through all succeeding ages, and 
live forever in the memory of man. " — But let us sit down on 
this parapet, and I will relate the anecdote. 

It was in the year of grace 1319 that Ismael ben Ferrag be- 
held from this tower a Christian camp whitening the skirts of 

35 yon mountain of Elvira. The royal princes, Don Juan and Don 
Pedro, regents of Castile during the minority of Alfonso XL, 
had already laid waste the country from ATcaudete to Algala la 



PALACE OF THE ALTIAMRRA. 55 

Real, capturing the castle of Illora and setting fire to its 
suburbs, and they now carried their insulting ravages to the 
very gates of Granada, defying the king to sally forth and give 
them battle. 

Ismael, though a young and intrepid prince, hesitated to ac- 5 
cept the challenge. He had not sufficient force at hand, and 
awaited the arrival of troops summoned from the neighboring 
towns. The Christian princes, mistaking his motites, gave up 
all hope of drawing him forth, and having glutted themselves 
with ravage, struck their tents and began their homeward 10 
march. Don Pedro led the van, and Don Juan brought up the 
rear, but their march was confused and irregular, the army 
being greatly encumbered by the spoils and captives they had 
taken. 

By this time King Ismael had received his expected resources, 15 
and putting them under the command of Osmyn, one of the 
bravest of his generals, sent them forth in hot pursuit of the 
enemy. The Christians were overtaken in the defiles of the 
mountains. A panic seized them ; they were completely routed, 
and driven with great slaughter across the borders. Both of 20 
the princes lost their lives. The body of Don Pedro was car- 
ried off by his soldiers, but that of Don Juan was lost in the 
darkness of the night. His son wrote to the Moorish king, en- 
treating that the body of his father might be sought and 
honorably treated. Ismael forgot in a moment that Don Juan 25 
was an enemy, who had carried ravage and insult to the very 
gate of his capital ; he only thought of him as a gallant cavalier 
and a royal prince. By his command diligent search was made 
for the body. It was found in a barranco and brought to 
Granada. There Ismael caused it to be laid out in state on 30 
a lofty bier surrounded by torches and tapers, in one of these 
halls of the Alhambra. Osmyn and other of the noblest cava- 
liers were appointed as a guard of honor, and the Cliristian 
captives were asseml^led to i)ray around it. 

In the mean time, Ismael wrote to the son of Prince Juan to 35 

4. Barranco (bar-raug'ko) : A deep ravine, or mountain gorge. 



56 PALACE OF THE ALHAM'BRA. 

send a convoy for the body, assuring him it should be faith- 
fully delivered up. In due time, a band of Christian cava- 
liers arrived for the purpose. They were honorably received 
and entertained by Ismael, and, on their departure with the 
5 body, the guard of honor of Moslem cavaliers escorted the 
funeral train to the frontier. 

But enough ; — the sun is high above the mountains, and 
pours his full fervor on our heads. Already the terraced roof 
is hot beneath our feet ; let us abandon it, and refresh our- 
lo selves under the arcades by the Fountain of the I^ions. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 57 



The Court of Lions. 

The peculiar charm of this old dreamy palace is its power of 
calling up vague reveries and picturings of the past, and thus 
clothing naked realities with the illusions of the memory and 
the imagination. As I delight to walk in these ' ' vain shadows, " 
I am prone to seek those parts of the Alhambra which are 5 
most favorable to this phantasmagoria of the mind; and none 
are more so than the Court of Lions, and its surrounding halls. 
Here the hand of time has fallen the lightest, and the traces of 
Moorish elegance and splendor exist in almost their original 
brilliancy. Earthquakes have shaken the foundations of this lo 
pile, and rent its rudest towers; yet see! not one of those 
slender columns has been displaced, not an arch of that light 
and fragile colonnade given way, and all the fairy fretwork of 
these domes, apparently as unsubstantial as the crystal fabrics 
of a morning's frost, exist after the lapse of centuries, almost 15 
as fresh as if from the hand of the Moslem artist. I \vTite in 
the midst of these mementos of the past, in the fre^ hour of 
early morning, in the fated Hall of the Abencerrages. The 
blood-stained fountain, the legendary monument of their mas- 
sacre, is before me; the lofty Jet almost casts its dew upon my 20 
paper. How difficult to reconcile the ancient tale of violence 
and blood with the gentle and peaceful scene around ! Every- 
thing here appears calculated to inspire kind and happy 
feelings, for everything is delicate and beautiful. The very 
light falls tenderly from above, through the lantern of a dome 25 
tinted and wrought as if by fairy hands. Through the ample 
and fretted arch of the portal I behold the Court of Lions, with 
brilliant sunshine gleaming along its colonnades and sparkling 
in its fountains. The lively swallow dives into the court, and, 
rising with a surge, darts away twittering over the roofs; the 30 
busy bee toils humming among the flower-beds; and painted 
butterflies hover from plant to plant, and flutter up and sport 



58 PALACE OF THE ALUAMBRA. 

with each other in the sunny air. It needs but a slight 
exertion of the fancy to picture some pensive beauty of the 
harem, loitering in these secluded haunts of Oriental luxury. 
He, however, who would behold this scene under an aspect 
5 more in unison with its fortunes, let him come when the 
shadows of evening temper the brightness of the court, and 
throw a gloom into the surrounding halls. Then nothing can 
be more serenely melancholy, or more in harmony with the tale 
of departed grandeur. 

10 At such times I am apt to seek the Hall of Justice, whose 
deep shadowy arcades extend across the upper end of the court. 
Here was performed, in presence of Ferdinand and Isabella 

' and their triumphant court, the pompous ceremonial of high 
mass, on taking possession of the Alhambra. The very cross 

15 is still to be seen upon the wall, where the altar was erected, 
and where officiated the Grand Cardinal of Spain, and others 
of the highest religious dignitaries of the land. I picture to 
myself the scene when this place was filled with the conquering 
host, that mixture of mitered prelate and shaven monk, and 

20 steel-clad knight and silken courtier; when crosses and crosiers 
and religious standards were mingled with proud armorial 
ensigns and the banners of the haughty chiefs of Spain, and 
flaunted in triumph through these Moslem halls. I picture to 
myself Columbus, the future discoverer of a world, taking his 

25 modest stand in a remote corner, the humble and neglected 
spectator of the pageant. I see in imagination the Catholic 
sovereigns prostrating themselves before the altar, and pouring 
forth thanks for their victory; while the vaults resound with 
sacred minstrelsy and the deep-toned Te Deum. 

30 The transient illusion is over, — the pageant melts from the 
fancy, — monarch, priest, and warrior return into oblivion with 
the poor Moslems over whom they exulted. The hall of their 
triumph is waste and desolate. The bat flits about its twilight 
vault, and the owl hoots from the neighboring tower of 

35 Comares. 

29. Te Deum : An ancient hymn, used especially in services of thanks- 
giving. It begins with the words Te Deum Imidanixis, Thee, God, we praise. 



PALACE OF THE ALIIAMIJRA. 59 

Entering the Court of the Lions a few evenings since, I was 
almost startled at beholding a tnrbaned Moor quietly seated 
near the fountain. For a moment one of the fictions of the 
place seemed realized: an enchanted Moor had broken the 
spell of centuries, and become visible. He proved, however, 5 
to be a mere ordinary mortal; a native of Tetuan in Barbary, 
who had a shop in the Zacatin of Granada, where he sold 
rhubarb, trinkets, and perfumes. As he spoke Spanish fluently, 
I was enabled to hold conversation with him, and found him 
shrewd and intelligent. He told me that he came up the hill lo 
occasionally in the summer, to pass a part of the day in the 
Alhambra, which reminded him of the old palaces in Barbary, 
being built and adorned in similar style, though with more 
magnificence. 

As we walked about the palace, he pointed out several of 1 5 
the Arabic inscriptions, as possessing much poetic beauty. 

"Ah, sefior," said he, "when the Moors held Granada, they 
were a gayer people than they are nowadays. They thought 
only of love, music, and poetry. They made stanzas upon 
every occasion, and set them all to music. He who could 20 
make the best verses, and she who had the most tuneful voice, 
might be sure of favor and preferment. In those days, if any 
one asked for bread, the reply was, make me a couplet; and 
the poorest beggar, if he begged in rhyme, would often be 
rewarded with a piece of gold." 25 

"And is the popular feeling for poetry," said I, "entirely 
lost among you ?" 

"By no means, seilor; the people of Barbary, even those of 
the lower classes, still make couplets, and good ones too, as in 
old times; but talent is not rewarded as it was then; the rich 30 
prefer the jingle of their gold to the sound of poetry or music." 

As he was talking* his eye caught one of the inscriptions 
which foretold perpetuity to the power and glory of the Moslem 
monarchs, the masters of this pile. He shook his head, and 
shrugged his shoulders, as he interpreted it. "Such might 35 
have been the case," said he; "the Moslems might still have 
been reigning in the Alhambra, had not Boabdll been a traitor, 



60 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

and given np his capital to the Christians. The Spanish 
monarchs would never have been able to conquer it by open 
force." 

I endeavored to vindicate the memory of the unlucky 

5 Boabdil from this aspersion, and to show that the dissensions 

which led to the downfall of the Moorish throne originated in 

the cruelty of his tiger-hearted father; but the Moor would 

admit of no palliation. 

"Muley Abul Hassan," said he, "might have been cruel; 

10 but he was brave, vigilant, and patriotic. Had he been prop- 
erly seconded, Granada would still have been ours; but his son 
Boabdil thwarted his plans, crippled his power, sowed treason 
in his palace, and dissension in his camp. May the curse of 
God light upon him for his treachery!" With these words the 

15 Moor left the Alhambra. 

The indignation of my turbaned companion agrees with an 
anecdote related by a friend, who, in the course of a tour 
in Barbary, had an interview with the Pacha of Tetuan. The 
Moorish governor was particular in his inquiries about Spain, 

20 and especially concerning the favored region of Andalusia, the 
delights of Granada, and the remains of its royal palace. The 
replies awakened all those fond recollections, so deeply cher- 
ished by the Moors, of the power and splendor of their ancient 
empire in Spain. Turning to his Moslem attendants, the 

25 Pacha stroked his beard, and broke forth in passionate lamen- 
tations, that such a scepter should have fallen from the sway 
of true believers. He consoled himself, however, with the 
persuasion that the power and prosperity of the Spanish nation 
were on the decline; that a time would come when the Moors 

30 would conquer their rightful domains; and that the day was 
' perhaps not far distant when Mohammedan worship would 
again be offered up in the Mosque of Cordova, and a Moham- 
medan prince sit on his throne in the Alhambra. 

Such is the general aspiration and belief among the Moors of 



18. Paclia (pa-shah'), also spelled Pas/ta: A governor; strictly, a title of 
honor, among the Turks, placed after the name; sometimes conferred upon 
clistinguished foreigners, as Emin Pasha, 



PALACE OP THE ALIIAMTiRA. 61 

Barbary; who consider Spain, or Andaluz, as it was anciently 
called, their rightful heritage, of which they have been de- 
spoiled by treachery and violence. These ideas are fostered 
and perpetuated by the descendants of the exiled Moors of 
Granada, scattered among the cities of Barbary. Several of 5 
these reside in Tetuan, preserving their ancient names, such as 
Paez and Medina, and refraining from intermarriage with any 
families who cannot claim the same high origin. Their 
vaunted lineage is regarded with a degree of popular deference 
rarely shown in Mohammedan communities to any hereditary lo 
distinction, excepting in the royal line. 

These families, it is said, continue to sigh after the terres- 
trial paradise of their ancestors, and to put up prayers in their 
mosques on Fridays, imploring Allah to hasten the time when 
Granada shall be restored to the faithful: an event to which 15 
they look forward as fondly and confidently as did the Christian 
crusaders to the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher. Nay, it is 
added that some of them retain the ancient maps and deeds ' 
of the estates and gardens of their ancestors at Granada, and 
even the keys of the houses; holding them as evidences of their 20 
hereditary claims, to be produced at the anticipated day of 
restoration. 

My conversation with the Moors set me to musing on the 
fate of Boabdil. Never was surname more applicable than 
that bestowed upon him by his subjects of el Zogoybi, or the 25 
Unlucky. His misfortunes began almost in his cradle, and 
ceased not even with his death. If ever he cherished the 
desire of leaving an honorable name on the historic page, how 
cruelly has he been defrauded of his hopes! Who is there that 
has turned the least attention to the romantic history of the 30 
Moorish domination in Spain, without kindling with indigna- 
tion at the alleged atrocities of Boabdil ? Who has not been 
touched with the woes of his lovely and gentle queen, sub- 
jected by him to a trial of life and death, on a false charge of 

1. Audaluz (Sp. ahn-dah-looth'): The same as Andalusia. 1 



62 PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 

infidelity ? Who has not been shocked by his alleged murder 
of his sister and her two children, in a transport of passion ? 
Who has not felt his blood boil at the inhuman massacre of the 
gallant Abencerrages, thirty-six of whom, it is affirmed, he 
5 ordered to be beheaded in the Court of Lions ? All these 
charges have been reiterated in various forms; they have 
passed into ballads, dramas, and romances, until they have 
taken too thorough possession of the public mind to be eradi- 
cated. There is not a foreigner of education that visits the 

lo Alhambra, but asks for the fountain where the Abencerrages 
were beheaded; and gazes with horror at the grated gallery 
where the queen is said to have been confined; not a peasant 
of the Vega or the Sierra, but sings the story in rude couplets, 
to the accompaniment of his guitar, while his hearers learn to 

15 execrate the very name of Boabdil. 

Never, however, was name more foully and unjustly slan- 
dered. I have examined all the authentic chronicles and 
letters written l)y Spanish authors, contemporary with Boabdil; 
some of whom were in the confidence of the Catholic sover- 

20 eigns, and actually present in the camp throughout the war. 
I have examined all the Arabian authorities I could get access 
to, through the medium of translation, and have found nothing 
to justify these dark and hateful accusations. The most of 
these tales may be traced to a work commonly called "The 

25 Civil Wars of Granada," containing a pretended history of the 
feuds of the Zegris and Abencerrages, during the last struggle 
of the Moorish empire. The work appeared originally in 
Spanish, and professed to be translated from the Arabic by 
one Gines Perez de Hita, an inhabitant of Murcia. It has 

30 since passed into various languages, and Florian has taken 
from it much of the fable of his Gonsalvo of Cordova: it has 
thus, in a great measure, usurped the authority of real history, 
and is currently believed by the people, and especially the 



30. Florian : A French novelist and poet, author of many popular 
romances. He translated " Don Quixote " iuto French. 



PALACE OF THE ALHAMBRA. 63 

peasantry of Granada. The whole of it, however, is a mass of 
fiction, mingled with a few disfigured truths, which give it an 
air of veracity. It bears internal evidence of its falsity; the 
manners and customs of the Moors being extravagantly mis- 
represented in it, and scenes depicted totally incompatible with 
their habits and their faith, and which never could have been 
recorded by a Mohammedan writer. 



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